SMART/IWB Presentation

11.12.12 - In today’s ICT lesson we presented our SMART/Interactive Whiteboard (IWB’s) lesson plan to two peers. I presented a lesson for a Year 4 class looking at the Ancient Greece: The Olympian Gods and Goddesses.

My presentation included a brief description of Mount Olympus and each of the 12 Gods and Goddesses. To clarify an understanding of the topic and to make the lesson more engaging and exciting, I included interactive resources: reveal erase, balloon pops and a timeline. From using these resources I understand how the IWB is a great way for teachers to engage and stimulate children in learning. 

The feedback to my lesson was very positive. My peers found the presentation eye catching because of the visuals used and easy to follow. I was advised that I had differentiated appropriately to include EAL children. I did include a lot of information so it was suggested that I could concentrate on a few Gods/Goddesses at a time. I was very pleased with my feedback and I look forward to incorporating these ideas/resources into the classroom. 

 ''I  AM SAD TO SAY THAT THIS IS OFFICIALLY MY LAST BLOG....

IT'S BEEN AN ADVENTURE. I HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE, ENTERED INTO THE 21ST CENTURY (SOME MAY ARGUE THAT IT'S ABOUT TIME) AND I BELIEVE THAT MY CONFIDENCE WITH TECHNOLOGY HAS GROWN. I NOW LOOK FORWARD TO BEING ABLE TO APPLY MY LEARNT KNOWLEDGE TO THE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT. I PROMISE TO TRY MY VERY BEST AND I LOOK FORWARD TO MAKING LEARNING ENGAGING, MOTIVATING AND STIMULATING FOR ALL CHILDREN...WISH ME LUCK :) ''

M Learning Simulation/Programming - Scratch Playful Learning – Dance to Advance

Similar to modelling programs (please see previous blog) there are a range of motivating and engaging virtual reality games that encourage children to explore new and exciting possibilities, try out different solutions and that can be used for educational purposes....ITS MAGICAL!

KODU is a new, stimulating, visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be accessible for children and is enjoyable for both adults and children. The programme can be played on the Xbox, allowing rapid design repetition using only a game controller for input.

Image 1, before I programmed instructions in...

   
Image 2, with clear instructions...
 





Key Features:

Who would have thought that so much creativity could be found in a game. Kodu provides an end-to-end creative environment for designing, building, and playing your own new games.

• High-level language incorporates real-world primitives: collision, color, vision
• Uses Xbox 360 Game Controller for input — no keyboard required
• Runs on XBox 360 and PC
• Interactive land editor
• Bridge and path builder
• land editor - create worlds of arbitrary shape and size
• 20 different characters with different abilities  KODU

DANCE TO ADVANCE

Dance to Advance is a modern user-friendly dance mat which is a fantastic resource for educational purposes. It is a great, engaging way to challenge and test knowledge of students because it features amazing visual and auditory stimuli. Dance to Advance is very innovative and beneficial for students because by using it, students will have fun making their way to greater understanding and maintaining their concepts. For older children, personalised dance mat activities can be created and edited on any topic or subject using text, pictures or sound. It
allows students to personalise their learning experience by selecting from a range of characters, music and background scenes (HOW EXCITING!!!) please see example below. Children/teachers also have the option to choose from the range of  ready-made activities (trust me there are many). The game features 1 or 2 player capability and allows for single, dual or sequential responses. This game encourages team work and turn taking. Dance to Advance comes with two dance mats, the mats have pressure-sensitive pads that act as switches for sending signals to the computer. The signals interact with Dance to Advance software rewarding the player for correct choices. Dance to Advance is such an inspiring tool for students as even the most shy and hesitant learner will be eager to join the fun. 

I created my own dance to advance game…the children will be happy to learn that the focus is on the 5 times tables (please see above image).

Please see video of two peers demonstrating how to use the dance mats so eloquently....


MYST EXILE – Takes children through a wonderful and fabulous journey through the mystical world of Myst. Children are encouraged to use their imagination and to become creative and innovative thinkers.

MACHINARIUM - is produced by Amanita Designs. It is an independent adventure game that has many educational purposes: imagination develops a child’s communication; problem solving skills and applying appropriate strategies; logical thinking, persistence (something that I struggle with at times) and collaborative thinking are just to name a few.
MACINARIUM

WORDLE - is a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more commonly in the  text. Clouds can be completely changed or even just tweaked with different fonts, colour schemes and layouts. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use. They can also be  printed out or even saved to the Wordle gallery.  

VOKI - enables children to create their own character, customise their look, add voice and to choose a background. 

Please see the voki character (to the left) that I created earlier. 

Voki Classroom is a classroom management tool that lets teachers create and organise Voki class accounts, as well as add and manage lessons and students. One important feature is that no student registration is required. Voki:motivates students to participate; improves message comprehension; introduces technology in a fun way; is an effective language tool.  VOKI