Stuart and I have been talking about the teachers we work with all over the UK (here), including those who create Virtual Classroom Tours (explained here) and travel with us to Innovative Teachers Forums around the world (described here).

We're about to embark on the grand-daddy of all Innovative Teachers events at Microsoft, our worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum, being held this year in Hong Kong. Literally hundreds of award-winning teachers from all over the world will be flown in for this event and will get the chance to share their innovative classroom learning activities with each other.

This year's event is the first week of November, and Stuart, the teachers and I will be blogging "live" from Hong Kong during the event. We're bringing two teachers to the Forum to represent the UK: Peter Carney from Bowring Community Sports College in Knowsley, and Dan Roberts from Saltash .NET Community School in Cornwall. Both teachers won prizes at our European Innovative Teachers Forum last spring in Croatia, and thus qualified to attend the worldwide event.

In addition to being excited about the amazing programme of events in Hong Kong, we at Microsoft are proud of Dan and Peter and the work they're doing with students at their schools. We want to share their Virtual Classroom Tours with you so that you can learn from them as well.

This week, I'll talk to you about Peter's VCT. You'll have to tune in again next week to learn about Dan's.

Peter's work is part of a larger curriculum reform that is taking place at his school. He was part of a team of teachers working together on this learning activity, which took place with year 8 students over several class periods.

Students were given a "real-life" project to solve; specifically, one of the teachers in their school had stolen £2000 earmarked for a school trip. Students were required to work as teams to analyse data and evaluate a range of evidence in order to eliminate suspects and find the "criminal". The tasks they were required to complete included fingerprint analysis, viewing of fibre samples from the "crime scene", and memory activities based on CCTV footage.

The student teams then had to create a presentation, in whatever format they chose, presenting the work they did to eliminate the suspects and their idea of who-dunnit.

Peter's fantastic VCT, containing all of the lesson plans, student activities, assessments, and examples of student work, is on the Innovative Teachers Network for you to use in your schools right away. (Click here to link to it directly.)

Next week I'll tell you about Dan Roberts' VCT and the 6-foot chicken he's bringing to Hong Kong.

*Note: If this is your first time accessing the Innovative Teachers Network, you will not be able to access the VCT directly from this link. You'll need to go to http://uk.innovativeteachers.com and register to create a username and password for the site. Then click the link above (where you'll be prompted for your username and password) to get to the VCT.

In an earlier post (here) I told you about the communities that exist on the Innovative Teachers Network (ITN). Since the beginning of this school term, we have had over 20 new communities created on the ITN. All have a different focus and represent the innovative ways schools are approaching the use of technology to support learning. To find an existing community on the ITN, first you need to sign in*. Once you're in, hover your mouse over the Communities tab at the top of the screen and select Find a Community from the drop-down menu. This takes you to the first of several pages showing all of the communities that exist on the ITN.

Over the past few months two communities have really begun to show what can be achieved through communities. One is a public community,  called MS Office and Learning Styles,  and the other is a private community called Saltash.Net EPICT CPD. These communities each have a different focus.

The MS Office and Learning styles community is for sharing ideas and resources around using Microsoft Office in the classroom, in particular Microsoft OneNote. Contributors to this community are far ranging, such Dr Ole Lauridsen, whose research into technology and thinking skills can be accessed in the documents Learning Styles in PPT  and OneNote - Learning Styles. (If you've ever wondered about how the use of colours in PowerPoint impacts attention span, this community has a document that explains all. Believe me the results are amazing!) Mike Tholfsen, who works on the development team for OneNote, has also joined this community and contributed a wealth of resources on using this marvellous application in schools.

Although the second example is a private community, the nature of what Saltash.Net Community School are wanting to achieve means that if you request to join their community, they will probably let you. The school uses their community as an organisational tool for their teachers to share ideas and support each other in the school’s goal of achieving EPICT status. The community contains ideas for virtual classroom tours and the activities that school is undertaking. If your school is thinking of developing some form of whole school professional development, then this community is an ideal place to start.

Creating a community is really easy, as I described in this earlier post. But before you create a community, think about what it will contain and who you're trying to reach. It is also a good idea to have resources ready to populate your community with. You will from time-to-time need to motivate your community by adding new resources, to spark new discussions and activity. It is worthwhile to consider ‘advertising’ your community through email or blogs, but you can only do this effectively if there are already resources in your community that you can point people to.

If you have community that you would like me to blog about, feel free to get in touch.

 *Note: If this is your first time accessing the Innovative Teachers Network, you will not be able to access the VCT directly from this link. You'll need to go to http://uk.innovativeteachers.com and register to create a username and password for the site. Then click the link above (where you'll be prompted for your username and password) to get to the VCT.

Recently I told you about the E-Librarian, a service to help you in your search for information on education topics. (To refresh your memory, click HERE for that post.) Today I have another time-saving tool to help you with UK-specific education research.

Say you want to search for information on using Tablet PCs in your classroom. If you use Microsoft Live Search or that other search engine that starts with a "G", your top results will include lists of places where you can buy Tablet PCs, a Wikipedia article on Tablet PCs and, if you scroll further, more places where you can buy Tablet PCs. You'll have to refine your search quite a bit to get to any research or information on using Tablet PCs in schools, and even then it will take you a while to find information that is specific to the UK.

Don't give up the search yet! The TDA and Microsoft have created a tool called the Education Evidence Portal (EEP), designed to help anyone search for materials from a variety of reputable sources in the UK.

If you enter the same search for Tablet PCs in EEP, here's what you get.

There are 137 results for research and other education-specific evidence relating to Tablet PCs. The drop-down list shows the organisations in England and Scotland where these documents are being pulled from.

To make it even easier, those of you using Windows Vista can install the EEP Vista gadget. Here's mine. It enables me to search EEP right from my desktop - doesn't get much  easier than that! (I'm only posting this photo to remind myself that there was at least one sunny day in England this year...)

I recently attended a great gathering of teachers at the the E-Learning Conference in Jersey (and got to see the Red Arrows performing at the Island’s Battle of Britain celebrations, which was very cool). I think the conference challenged and certainly enthused us all; I've provided links to some of my favorite presentations here:

•  Joe Dale, a teacher from the Isle of Wight spoke about how to successfully use Podcasting in the classroom
• the highly entertaining Russell Prue, who had loads of great ideas for the creative use of technology in the schools
•  Microsoft's own award winning Ray Fleming talked about ‘Shift' happening in schools
• DK from MediaSnackers spoke about how to successfully use social networks and YouTube in schools,

DK also told me about this great presentation on creativity in schools (or the lack thereof) by Sir Ken Robinson; if you have not seen this TED talk, you must, check it out here.

I ran a workshop at the conference about the Innovative Teachers Network, during which teachers voiced their frustration that they can't use many of the most interesting web-based classroom ideas they had seen at the conference. This is not due to a lack of resources or technology, but is simply because, a result of a directive from the Local Authority, the web sites they need are not accessible through their school networks. When I was teaching I experienced a similar situation, with the directive coming from the Minister of Education in Wales.

I understand the issues around safety and appropriate use of web technologies, but I am beginning to hear more and more people say that students enter school and ‘power down’, meaning that they can’t use the technology and associated skills they have mastered outside school to support their learning. Do any of you have the same frustration? Have you managed to overcome these issues?

One thing I have learnt is that whatever the issue we have with technology, a teacher or school somewhere has solved the problem. This is where the Innovative Teachers Network can prove invaluable. Clare Satchwell, a history teacher from the Priory City of Lincoln Academy has recorded in a Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT) how her school have managed to use MSN Messenger to support learning - something that other schools don't often allow. Clare’s VCT, which she presented at the European Innovative Teachers Forum in Zagreb as an award winner from the UK, describes her idea as simple, but the issues they have managed to solve are complex. Clare’s VCT describes how students use MSN Messenger to contact their teachers to support their learning at home. It is a great idea and is having a measurable impact on exam results.

You can download Clare’s VCT from the Innovative Teachers Network. Joining the Network is free and will give you access to even more resources and communities. So in the words of the 80s TV programme The A-Team, ‘If you have a problem and no one else can help, then you need the [Innovative Teachers Network]. I love it when a plan comes together’.

Please feel free to contribute any other A-Team quotes -- or any innovative ways you use technology to support learning -- and share them as a Virtual Classroom tour on the Innovative Teacher Network site.

We throw around the word "innovation" a lot in education today. Indeed, it's one of our favourite words at Microsoft, as we've frequently referred to Innovative Teachers or Innovative Schools programmes in this blog.

But what does it really mean?

I was reading an education and technology blog put out by Edutopia, the journal of the George Lucas Educational Foundation (that's right, THE George Lucas, as in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and so forth).

This blogger was talking about innovation and asked teachers (and these are US teachers, mind you), to write in and discuss how they are using technology in innovative ways to support their teaching and their students' learning.

I have to admit, I was surprised by some of the answers, as they didn't seem very innovative to me. Using wireless mice on classroom computers?  Playing videos for students from a computer rather than on a television?

But what do I know?

I'm visiting schools in the UK on a regular basis, and I've visited schools all over the world, but many times I'm visiting a "showcase" school that the government or partner uses as an example.  I know that schools and teachers have to start somewhere; innovative use of technology is different for a teacher new to using ICT than it is for a teacher for whom computers are old hat.  At the same time, there are many teachers who use technology regularly but may not be innovative. I've seen many teachers using technology simply to replace old tools, such as pencil and paper, rather than using it to do things that students couldn't do without it.

I know there must be a million examples of innovative uses of technology in schools in the UK, but other than a handful of examples I don't know where it is, who is doing it, and what impact it is having on teaching and learning. So you tell me - what are you doing with ICT that's innovative? How do you define innovation?

I know you have more going on here than our friends across the pond. Either add a comment to this post or complete a Virtual Classroom Tour on the Innovative Teachers Network and tell us what you're doing.

My fellow blogger Stuart was a science teacher, and still talks about things like chaos theory and tarantulas. Even though I taught English and French, I found this quick science resource too fun to keep to myself.

A colleague of mine at Microsoft sent around these short video snippets featuring a cartoon Einstein who teaches some of the basic concepts of physics. The resources described here were created by Deutsche World, the German equivalent of BBC World Service. (Don't worry - they're in English!)

We get excited about them because they make use of Microsoft's great Silverlight system and are pretty beautiful to look at.

But by covering topics such as E=mc² and gravity, in about two minutes each, they provide simple explanations of difficult concepts and are the perfect introduction to a lesson. The visual stories presented by this little "Einsteinchen" are easy to understand for even the most science-phobic of students (I include myself in that group...).

You can view all 12 videos by clicking here, or visiting the Quick Ideas section of the Innovative Teachers Network. We're always on the lookout for quick ideas for the classroom, and I'm sure you are, too. You can upload your own Quick Ideas using the template here.

If you have a question about something related to your teaching, where you go to get the answer? Or, if one of your students, your head teacher, or a fellow teacher asks you a question that you don't know the answer to, what do you do about it?

Chances are, you head to a search engine, type in the question, and are then forced to slog through a list of links, visiting multiple web sites until you may - or may not - find what you are looking for. (Or if it's your student who has asked you, you just tell them to search for the answer themselves...)

Wouldn't it be great if there was a person you could go to for these kinds of questions? (And by person, I mean an actual, real, live person, trained in research and whose job is to help you.) Even better, what if that person was a librarian?

Don't believe that such a thing is possible? Well, believe it! As part of our partnership with the TDA for the past three years of our Partners in Learning initiative, we've jointly developed a free web service called E-Librarian. The service exists as part of the TDA's Teacher Training Resource Bank site, located HERE.

The E-Librarian service is staffed by librarians sitting at the Institute of Education's Library in London. All questions asked receive an individual response and are published back onto the site so that they can be accessed by other users.

Using this service couldn't be easier. Simply go to the site (complete a quick registration if you're a first-time user) and either search topics of previous responses, or ask your own question. (The E-Librarians recommend that you search previous responses before asking an original question of your own. Chances are, they've answered your question already!)

Take a look at a question someone asked recently about enquiry-based learning:

And just part of the answer:

Just imagine how intelligent you'll look to all of your friends/colleagues when you come back to them with an answer like this! (Don't worry - your secret is safe with us.)

These are a real snack fest of ideas (low on fat, but high in cool things to do in the classroom) to develop innovative ideas using technology across the curriculum. They include  ideas for art, History, D&T,Geography,Science, PE, Music, MFL, English and Maths and are suitable for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 pupils. So there is something here for everyone. Each idea consists of a single  A4 word document, there is an example below.

These ideas can be found on the Innovative Teachers Network under Learning resources > Quick ideas and are two zip files called 101 ideas and 101 ideas 2nd. You can also find another 101 ideas created by colleagues in Europe (they are in english), you will need to use the search facility to find this. In the search box on any page on the site type ‘101 ideas’, the file you want is called ‘101_angol_3.pdf ‘, click the corresponding URL to download the file.

I hope you enjoy these resources and find them useful, please feel free to contribute any activities that these resources prompt you to create, to the Innovative Teachers Network. You could upload the resources to the Quick Ideas section under Learning Resources and share them with other teachers.

Example 101 Ideas

Art - Design

Resources:

To create movie presentations: Photostory 3

To download information: MSN Livesearch

Learning Objective:

• about continuity and change in the roles, purposes and audiences of artists, craftspeople and designers

• to discuss and question critically, and select from a range of visual and other information to help them develop ideas for independent work.

• to record and analyse first-hand observations, and to explore ideas for different purposes and audiences

• to organise and present this material in different ways

Activity:

• Show pupils examples of contemporary decorative and applied art, e.g. fashion, textiles, ceramics, furniture.
• Talk about the influences of diverse cultures on our lives and 'lifestyle'.
• Discuss examples of contemporary design and ask pupils to suggest where ideas might have come from. Ask pupils to research, using the Internet, about the history of certain styles.
• Ask them to suggest how and why styles change. Talk about the idea that style in art and design is often reflected in other art forms, e.g. the connections between art deco and jazz.
• Ask the children to create a movie timeline presentation that will demonstrate how certain factors have impacted design.

Extension:

The Learners can find music that can fit in with their chosen design and use this to score their presentation timeline.

Did You Know?

With Photo Story 3 you can create slideshows using your digital photos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. It's that easy!

Add stunning special effects, soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then, personalize them with titles and captions.

Small file sizes make it easy to send your photo stories in an e-mail. Watch them on your TV, a computer, or a Windows Mobile–based portable device.

I know a lot of teachers who use digital cameras (still or video) with their students. Many take advantage of Microsoft's free tools, such as Photo Story and Movie Maker, so that students can use photo and video technology to help tell a story. Both Photo Story and Movie Maker are fun, useful and FREE, and later in this blog we'll be sharing ideas in this blog to inspire you to use them both with your students - if you don't use them already.

But the digital photo situation just got a little more interesting with Photosynth. If you haven't heard of it, my colleague Ray offers a simple description in his UK Schools blog

PhotoSynth is an amazing way of arranging photographs of a place - creating a three-dimensional model using photographs - allowing you to "walk around" places like St Mark's Square in Venice, or inside the Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

(For a more details on how this technology actually works, check out the more techie Microsoft blog HERE.)

At Microsoft we've been hearing about Photosynth for ages, it seems. I've seen all the cool demos by members of the Photosynth team (if you haven't, go to Ted to watch a jaw-dropping demo by Blaise Aguera). But we weren't actually able to get our hands on the technology to play with it ourselves - until last month, when we released the new features allowing anyone to be able to create their own Synths.

If I didn't work for Microsoft, I'm not sure I'd be what you call an "early adopter" - someone who rushes out to get the latest technology as soon as it's released. But when I saw the release of Photosynth, I immediately created a profile on the site and started to go through pictures from my travels to see if I had enough to create a synth. (I didn't, but on my next trip, I will.)

Since creating a synth allows you to give the experience of "being there" to someone who has not been there, I can think of endless possibilities for it in the classroom. Can you imagine partnering with a school in another town/county/country and having students create synths to share with each other? And even if you don't have digital cameras for your students, you can still share with them the synths created by other people or organisations such as National Geographic or the BBC.

(This synth of the Taj Mahal is one of my favourites.)

We've created a community on the Innovative Teachers Network for Photosynth. This community contains the photography guide and other Photosynth materials, as well as places for you to link to your own synth or post ideas and resources you're using with your students.

Often when I am visiting schools I get asked by teachers to speak to groups of students and tell them about working at Microsoft. What they don't want to know is that I spend a lot of my time with teachers developing some really great projects – they really want to know, 'Have I met Bill Gates?' (No, is the answer) and do I get to see any “cool” stuff. Yes definately. So I have taken time to ‘collect’ some ‘really cool’ examples of things I think teachers and students could use in the classroom. And more often than not they have haven’t seen or heard of them.

The first of these is Tafiti , an educational based search site that is built using Silverlight. So what makes it better than any other search engine? Well, it looks great, but better than that, it has the ability for students to store and share their searches. This solves a lot problems when getting students to justify their research for assignments and projects. And it provides an opportunity to teach some research skills. Check it out – I think it has to be seen to be believed. You will need to install the silverlight plug-in, just as you would for Flash for example.

Now you have Silverlight installed, checkout Popfly. This is a mash up creator - This can support programming in ICT lessons, and there is now a game creator as well.

My all time favourite is OneNote. I used this extensively in school - the best way to describe it is as a piece of smart paper, on which you can write, type, take image clips from anywhere, record sound and record video all on the same page. I think it makes a great whiteboard tool for teachers, but doesn’t need the whiteboard to work. The Innovative Teachers Network has details of how OneNote is being used in other schools. Check out the MSOffice and Learning styles community on the Innovative Teachers Network.

These are just some of the resources, I used as a teacher to enhance the learning of my students. I am constantly finding new things to try, and the Innovative Teachers Network is a great place to see how other teachers are using new technology to support their teaching. Keep a look out for PLEX for Powerpoint.