The trouble with computers

The week began in the usual fashion. A busy Monday with a pile of mail to get through. The day was I finalised a draft of our Monitoring Policy and work sampling policy. A great deal of today was spent on the phone to various legal people and Derek regarding an ongoing issue at the school. I contact Rob to try to help us locate or contact a parent who has kept her child off school recently with no explanation or contact with the school. This is a common occurrence across Scotland and it does create a great deal of work to locate these children. The day ends with a Newsletter distributed to parents explaining all the after school clubs at Innerwick this term and the timing of each club. Monday, WHOOSH Drama Till 5:30 pm, Tuesday, ICT club to 4:45pm, Thursday Sports Club till 4:15pm. For a school the size of Innerwick to have this on offer in the winter months is a testament too all the staff currently employed at Innerwick. Music today is New Order, Thieves like us, Fantastic.

Tuesday.

Music in the car on the way to work is Franz Ferdinand. Are they as good as the hype?

In class with P5/6/7 I am teaching them how to use PowerPoint to convey a message on Fireworks Safety to be delivered to all pupils on Friday Assembly. The class are very keen and are rising to the challenge, despite having very limited experience of Powerpoint this is due to the fact that until 4 months ago no class had access to any of the MS Office programmes. I work on poetry with a group and reading comprehension with another. I hear two reading groups and give the class a mental maths assessment. After lunch the class attend Art which is taught by Ann Marie Burgess who covers McCrone time. Ann Marie follows the Borders Art pack using the Phillip Green art pack. The resulting Art work in the school is superb. I try to stay clear of my office which again a disaster area. At 3:20 The ICT club start and we look at Digital Photography, Digital Video, and start playing with the I-pod (more on this later)

Wednesday.

Darren Hayes, I miss you, and Texas, Listen to me, (Rick’s Road) two songs that are too romantic for first thing in the morning but both good for an in-car singalong.

I receive an email from Alan Cruikshank, as do all schools: I reply. Alan writes back. Good honest constructive dialog.

By coincidence in the afternoon Richard Wilson and Myself were invited to Gracemount High in Edinburgh to attend the launch of an innovative ITC project using I-pods. During the launch issues such as the IT issues above were raised as being barriers to creativity and ICT subject development. The following is a Press release on the project on www.egfl.net:

Students at an Edinburgh High School are testing the latest ‘must have gadget’ – the Apple iPod - to assess its potential as a teaching and learning tool. Students and staff at Gracemount High are taking part in a pilot study to look at the potential of the iPod, for classroom and home learning - anytime, anywhere.

Apple have donated 50 iPods to the school and far from being told off for using them in class, the teachers are encouraging students to do so. Preliminary research into the use of iPods in learning and teaching strongly suggests that using hand held media devices, like the iPod, could really enhance educational experiences.

‘iPodagogy’ (as the project is known) tests thinking and will identify innovative, practical and no doubt simple ways to harness the eLearning potential of one of today’s favourite gadgets. Pupils’ learning skills, time management and target setting will develop as the capabilities of the iPod are better understood and applied on a daily basis, in and out of the classroom.

Councillor Rev Ewan Aitken, Executive Member for Children and Families, said: "iPods can be used for a lot more than just music. They are so adaptable and this could perhaps turn them into hugely powerful tools for teaching. This project will involve the pupils working out how the iPods could be used to greatest effect - for they know the technology the best.

"This cute little box is clever and more than able to store audiobooks, photo slideshows, video podcasts, TV shows and more while organising calendars, contacts and files. Areas such as Languages, Music and Art will find good use for this technology almost immediately and although their application is perhaps less obvious in some other subject areas, ideas abound. Without too much difficulty we can even spot uses on the sports field - from the simple timing of fastest laps to viewing coaching clips at trackside."

Although the school is the main driver in this project, something of this scale and importance relies on the ability to involve others. Edinburgh’s eTeam are a specialist unit supporting ICT at all levels across the spectrum of the education service. From nursery into secondary and from special schools into community education, they manage the strategic direction of educational ICT in Edinburgh. With a mix of technical specialists and educators, experts can be called on for particular curricular areas and general professional issues.

‘Before’ and ‘after’ techniques will be used to evaluate the project and compare the target and control groups before a series of case studies is published. Thinking about the future use of iPods will emerge, as will ideas for possible product development. Other areas ripe for development may be flagged up, such as comparisons of "iPod for all" and "laptop for all" schemes.

At Innerwick, West Barns, East Linton and Stenton we are currently using this technology and are in the process of putting together Pod casts, Pupils at East Linton are ready to go with the recording of their pod cast, a major issue however will be where to host these podcasts as our current websites will not hold media such as this. We are in contact with LTs and I will keep you posted as to how we et on with this project and whether we ever get a pod cast uploaded to a public website.

Thursday

The day begins with a parental meeting which lasts an hour. I then meet a rep that has some interesting science equipment for Electricity. I buy nothing.

At 11am and for the rest of the afternoon I an involved in a NQT observation, meeting and resultant planning discussion. I am keen to fast track a group of P6 children and we organize the timetable for this. I distribute stuff that I have been working on to all schools. I am very much of the opinion that we need to have a central place to distribute stuff like this. Maybe this website is the perfect location. After school our PE teacher runs a well-attended Sports Club.

Music on the way home is supplied by The Sundays, Album, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, track is Can't be sure. I think this sums my week up so far.