EAT SLEEP ICT REPEAT

Welcome to my latest blog where I am going review my day at the fantastic Exabytes19 conference. I considered doing a top 5 highlights for this blog but it wouldn’t do it justice as I had more than 5 highlights! I first came across Exabytes19 from Alan O’Donohoe (@teknoteacher) who leads the Exa Foundation. Their mission is to ‘support computing education and promote safe, secure and appropriate use of tech.’ (@ExaFoundation). Alan messaged me and asked if I would share on my twitter the application form for presenting at ExaBytes. I shared the link and also successfully applied. Exabytes19 is the ExaFoundation’s 4 th annual conference. Throughout the year they also run smaller training sessions around the country called Exabits. When I began to research previous Exabytes, I came across so much positive feedback, with several people describing it as ‘the best CPD training I’ve had all year’. I liked the idea that the conference wasn’t enormous and there would only ...

Yesterday I attended the LGfL ‘Let’s Get Digital’ Conference. This is a great event which I have attended almost every year that I have been an ICT/Computing Leader. The conference is free for LGfL schools and consists of around 8 keynote speakers, the choice to attend three 20 minute seminars in smaller rooms, a free lunch and opportunities to visit pop up stands run by LGfL’s partners. These included Busy Things, J2E, Avantis VR and Google. The venue had changed to a much larger space in Liverpool Street meaning it was easier to network and find your way around! So here are my top 5 highlights from the conference this year… 5) Don't run any more parent online safety workshops photo: LGfL I attended a seminar run by LGfL Safeguarding Manager, Mark Bentley @LGfLDigiSafe , who said he’s been asked a million times ‘How do I get parents to attend my parent online safety workshop?’ – His answer in summary is ‘don’t do it! It’s much more effective to drip feed on...

On the back of the success of the adverts for WaterAid that I had set for one of my Year 5 classes in Spring 1, I now had the opportunity to create another fantastic advert project with the other Year 5 children in Spring 2. Their Spring 1 topic of 'Water' linked really well to the WaterAid charity idea but they had finished that topic and had moved onto learning about 'Space'. I thought this would be a terrific opportunity to link 'Space' to the creation of an advert and as one of our main tools was using green screen, it was the perfect chance to film some zero gravity floating! Around the time of planning the lessons, Virgin Galactic was in the news as it had completed another test run of it's spaceship. Virgin Galactic are aiming to be the first company to take regular people into space on a commercial flight. I did some research into what inspirational videos were available and showed the story of Virgin Galactic. I had decided that this...

I've been trying out multimedia projects with Year 5 for a couple of years but never gave the children enough focus to produce a decent film. Then, after watching a project that ICT with Mr P created with his Year 4's on Greenpeace's campaign to stop the production of Palm Oil from Orangutan's rain forests, I was inspired for my children to make an advert for a charity. This meant contributing to a real life campaign, raising awareness, making a difference and giving their ICT learning real purpose.   Mr P's RangTang Palm Oil Campaign   I was also working hard this year to link my work with what the children were learning in class. During Spring 1, Year 5 learn about rivers and the water cycle. So I thought it would be a great opportunity to create an advert for WaterAid, one of the world's biggest charities for helping bring fresh water and hygiene solutions to over 30 countries who don't have access to clean sanitation.  I shared wit...

I have always loved animation and have always had a strong ambition to teach a variety of techniques within my computing curriculum. In KS1, children learn 2D animation through apps like PuppetPals, Chatterpix and J2E Animate. At the beginning of KS2, children learn about 3D animation through apps like Evertoon like in this example which shows a cyber bullying victim talking to a friend. At the end of KS2, I focus on creating stop-motion animation.  A project can be created with less resources that most people think and over a short period of time. This World War II project was delivered over 2 afternoons and each pair was given: An iPad with free iMotion app installed An iPad stand A whiteboard Around 12-15 toy soldiers  (A tub of 70 soldiers can be bought from Poundland for 80p) A tub of playdough (Also very cheap from Poundland) A box for a plain background I would usually get children to storyboard their idea first but I have usually fo...