I wanted to share with you the thoughts of my colleague at Microsoft , Ellie Jones , who accompanied us to a great event last weekend, The Festival of Education.
It’s the time of year where with the summer sunshine (well some), the festival season is upon us. Ok, so I wasn’t showing off my wellies and descending down on Glastonbury trying to make my way through all the mud and find a spot for my tent, however I did attend The Sunday Times Festival of Education along with some of my colleagues and customers at Wellington College , Berkshire. This is the second year that this festival has run and is already showing popularity with attendees growing from 500 attendees last year to 2000 attendees this year, continuing to grow next year with a target of 5000. During the 2 day festival, those attending were able to attend varying presentations with over 150 speakers including Bob Geldof, Michael Gove, Sir Terry Leahy, Sir Robert Winston as well as Microsoft with guest speakers from some of our Innovative schools. Ollie Bray, Musselburgh Grammar School – Why computer games change the way students learn Mandeep Atwal – SHOUT - Inspiration to explore, connect and make a difference Dan Roberts, Saltash.net – A climate of change and being brave Isobel Bryce, Saltash.net– School transformation through partnership Stuart Ball, Partners in Learning, Microsoft – Connecting teachers, connecting learners Jan Webb , Partners in Learning, Microsoft– A classroom without walls Sir Mark Grundy and Kirsty Tonks, Shireland Collegiate Academy– Outstanding school improvement through technology The festival saw some great speakers, interesting debates and a wide and varied audience from across the country. On top of all this success, for once instead of the typical rain clouds often seen at festivals, the weather turned out exceptional as well. No wellies needed!
It’s the time of year where with the summer sunshine (well some), the festival season is upon us. Ok, so I wasn’t showing off my wellies and descending down on Glastonbury trying to make my way through all the mud and find a spot for my tent, however I did attend The Sunday Times Festival of Education along with some of my colleagues and customers at Wellington College , Berkshire.
This is the second year that this festival has run and is already showing popularity with attendees growing from 500 attendees last year to 2000 attendees this year, continuing to grow next year with a target of 5000.
During the 2 day festival, those attending were able to attend varying presentations with over 150 speakers including Bob Geldof, Michael Gove, Sir Terry Leahy, Sir Robert Winston as well as Microsoft with guest speakers from some of our Innovative schools.
Ollie Bray, Musselburgh Grammar School – Why computer games change the way students learn
Mandeep Atwal – SHOUT - Inspiration to explore, connect and make a difference
Dan Roberts, Saltash.net – A climate of change and being brave
Isobel Bryce, Saltash.net– School transformation through partnership
Stuart Ball, Partners in Learning, Microsoft – Connecting teachers, connecting learners
Jan Webb , Partners in Learning, Microsoft– A classroom without walls
Sir Mark Grundy and Kirsty Tonks, Shireland Collegiate Academy– Outstanding school improvement through technology
The festival saw some great speakers, interesting debates and a wide and varied audience from across the country. On top of all this success, for once instead of the typical rain clouds often seen at festivals, the weather turned out exceptional as well. No wellies needed!
For those who attended the sessions from Jan and myself, I have attached to this post the presentations with the links to the applications we mentioned and discussed.
Who else was at the festival, what did you think? We would welcome your comments.
To continue with the “playful learning” theme of some recent blog posts, there’s been a bit of a buzz going on this week as the tools to let us create our own Kinect XBox games have been released. There’s some amazing learning potential – perhaps you are a teacher who knows a little bit about coding and can create some cool learning opportunities for your students or perhaps you have older students who are developing their own coding skills. Imagine having the universe at your fingertips with the amazing Worldwide Telescope enabled by Kinect! Being able to use augmented reality in the classroom becomes a reality. Check out some initial attempts by one of our innovative teachers, Ray Chambers and learn from some of the experts who were involved at special Kinect for Windows SDK event recently.
You will need:
After the great success of the last 2 Summer Camps and the Easter Camp held earlier this year, we will be running another Summer Camp this year – this is an open invitation to all of you reading this blog to apply. So if you have time this summer, perhaps your plans for other events and holidays have not materialised and you still want to spend time with other innovative educators, then this is an ideal event for you.
Summer Camp takes place at Microsoft UK Headquarters in Reading, starting 10:00am on Tuesday 24th August and finishing 4:00pm Wednesday 25th August. You need to find your own way there - the train is best and there is a free bus from the station. We have sorted a hotel and an evening meal for you.
We will give you training in using our free software to create teaching and learning resources for the classroom. You will have time to design, create and evaluate those resources and collaborate with others. You will also get the chance to speak to experts at Microsoft about our technology. This year we have a theme – VISUAL CREATIVITY – and we will be preparing sequences of lessons that release students’ (and teachers’!) creativity, whichever subject area they are studying. Watch out for budding film-makers!
You will join a select group of educators as part of the Partners in Learning Network that have opportunities to contribute to the work Microsoft Partners in Learning are undertaking in education in the UK and will provide some of the experience needed for applying to a *NEW* special programme we will be announcing later this summer.
We don’t want videos or lengthy biographies from you, to apply, just email three tweet-esque type statements (140 characters or less) to innovteach2@live.co.uk before the closing date 12:00pm 8th July 2011. These statements should be ideas of how you would, or are using Microsoft technologies to support learning across the curriculum. For example:-
Also include details of your school, subject expertise and pupil age range in your application. We will select 15 applicants with the most intriguing and innovative ideas, who will be notified on 15th July 2011.
Yes, most definitely, we are looking for classroom innovators in learning, rather than techie whizz kids. This event is targeted at those Teachers in the UK interested in teaching and learning, and how technology can support that, rather than the technology itself. This event is for teachers in the UK in Primary, Secondary and Special school settings.
We expect you to bring some of the tools you are using already:
Movie Maker 2.6, Autocollage, World Wide Telescope, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Movie Maker and any associated software such as Silverlight and .net framework installed.
What will I be expected to do?
You will need to be able to upload images from your camera onto your computer so that you can learn to how to manipulate them in a number of ways!
You will receive a certificate welcoming you as a Partners in Learning Teacher and more ideas about how to enhance pupil through the use of technology.
We are looking forward to receiving your applications. If you have any questions post a comment or contact us via email at innovteach2@live.co.uk .
Get applying and Good Luck.
Continuing with the theme of games being used to help learning from our last Free Stuff blog post, Mouse Mischief is a fantastic way to engage students in interactive learning opportunities and can make any Microsoft Powerpoint 2010 or 2007 into a game.
Mouse Mischief describes itself as a tool that integrates into Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, enabling you insert questions, polls, and drawing activity slides into your lessons. Students can actively participate in these lessons by using their own mice to click, circle, cross out or draw answers on the screen. When the Mouse Mischief add-in is downloaded, it creates a new tab within PowerPoint for easy preparation and combination of static and interactive slides .
There is a wealth of resources and lessons available online and when you search through PowerPoint templates in Office 2010, there is a whole section of shared Mouse Mischief templates, too. Check out the Mouse Mischief innovid to help get you started.
Application name – Mouse Mischief
Free access at - http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/en-gb/
Requirements – You will need a graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0c and Shader Model 2.0 or higher
If you have also downloaded the STAMP accessibility add-in and have experienced any issues with the Mouse Mischief ribbon in PowerPoint 2010, you will be glad to hear there is an easy fix by following these steps (for Windows 7):
1. Uninstall Mouse Mischief, exit PowerPoint
2. Click the Start button
3. Type cmd and press return
4. This brings up a command line
5. Type CD AppData
6. Type CD Local
7. Type CD Microsoft_Corporation
8. Type DIR
9. There should be a single directory, with a number such as “Microsoft.Multipoint.Misc_Path_ryyvyople4fozchjgoz45ldjqotlpqht” (Note: the text ryyvyople4fozchjgoz45ldjqotlpqht will be different on your system)
10. Type RD /S Microsoft.Multipoint.Misc_Path_textfromyoursystem
11. Re-install Mouse Mischief, run PowerPoint
The fence had been pulled open. Diggers stood silently on the corrugated soil. The stands at Gresty Road were empty, silent with not even a faint whisper of a cheer remaining. Sprinklers were showering the arid ground. It’s not really how you expect to see the local football ground before the end of the season and it made me look at it differently. Instead of the tired turf showing all the signs of the usual wear and tear after months of pleasing cheering fans, this was a new start. Seeds were being sown and later that day as I walked back past the ground for a second time, the furrows had been flattened. I’m sure there will be much tender loving care from the groundsmen as they nurture the pitch back to a perfect green in readiness for a hopeful new start to another season.
What makes the difference? The tender loving care. A bit like learning, really. Seth Godin in his book, Linchpin, suggests that differences are made when people give of themselves, take risks and act as humans rather than cogs in a machine to personalise what they do for those around them. But how many times do people still keep doing the same old thing? Keep playing on the worn out turf with the bare, muddy patches when what really needs to be done for healthy growth is to plough everything up, sow, roll, water and be patient. Not change for the sake of change or something that is rushed into, but change that is carefully planned (don’t tear up the pitch in the middle of the season!). Creating the right conditions for that change to happen is key – timing, watering, fertilising, patience. Stuart talked about professional networking and its role in professional development in his post ……………. Godin goes on to say that sharing without needing something back in return is a gift that allows us room to experiment and room to find fulfillment in what we do. If professional sharing is the seeds, what do we need to do to churn the soil so we can have new, healthy growth free of weeds and bare muddy patches?
Games have long been used in class to engage and enthuse learners, from bingo to the latest TV game show format to the use of the latest gaming consoles to provide interesting contexts for learning, including descriptive writing, databases and problem solving. Kodu goes a step further and allows learners to become creators of their own games on XBox or PC’s.
Kodu is a free downloadable visual programming language that “is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone.” The programmes can be created on the Xbox or PC using either a game controller or keyboard/mouse actions. Learners can create a range of terrains, worlds and characters, controlling the characters’ movement, sound and vision using intuitive icon-based language that is suitable from KS2 upwards.
There is a wealth of resources to support the use of Kodu for learning -check out how to get started when creating a basic game on our YouTube channel innovid. Once you enter the world of Kodu, there are games to play on pre-prepared worlds and easy to follow tutorials to take you through the features of Kodu. Check out the user forum here and the Microsoft Research information here.
Application name – Kodu
Free access at - http://fuse.microsoft.com/project/kodu.aspx