The Asus Eee PC and me

Due to the imminent arrival of my to girls for a couple of weeks and the extremely dodgy weather forecast I decided I needed another web based PC so that the kids could have internet access and also allow me to use the desktop to get on with writing schemes of work. I decided on an Asus for a variety of reasons:

1. my dad had just got one and my girls had already used it so I knew they were ok with it
2. we’re going to get a version of the Asus for school so it was a way for me to get used to it
3. I liked the look of them
4. they’d just been reduced by £20.

The verdict so far:

• It’s easy to use. The linux system works well and finds the wireless easily. It also boots up fast and is silent… no moving parts.
• The 701 screen is a tad small. When web browsing you’ll normally need to F11 the screen or get annoyed
• The keyboard is easy to use. I’m not a touch typer but can type reasonably fast and once you get used to the keyboard it works fine
• The touchpad is horrible. This is my only bugbear with the whole thing. The pad itself is fine and works as you’d expect it. However using the pad and the little metal button is bloody fiddly and annoying. I end up using to hands as my thumb doesn’t seem to have the dexterity to work the button properly…that maybe just me though.
• Portability is a great feature. You can just pick it up and start using it… pretty much anywhere.

I know that I can plug in a mouse, a usb keyboard and a screen to alleviate all of the above issues but tht sort of defeats the object of having it.

How will it be used in school?

Our school has PC access issues. The ICT dept is running wild with the number of students opting for courses and the number of courses being run. This has meant that other subject areas have been sidelined. They are not happy…understandably. We have three laptop trolleys in school that MFL, Maths, Science and PSHE use. They have been working well but will soon need replacing. English have no computer access and are desperate for some However their main requirements are research and word processing and the Eee PC’s seem to fit the bill. However, the 701 is too ’small’ so we will probably opt for the 901 or 1001.

We are also getting a completely refurbished Library or ‘learning resource base’. The idea will be to create study space that is multi functional, so pupils/staff can either have a desk space for study or loan an Asus from the librarian. I think that that is a great use of these little beauties.

ICT and Functional Skills

Functional skills are a fantastic idea. The need to pass a functional skills test in order to get a diploma is a great idea.  The need to pass level 2 functional skills test in English, Maths and ICT to get a coresponding A*-C at GCSE is quite scary.  The premise is (as far as I have worked out) that for a pupil to get a GCSE in any of the three ‘tool’ subjects (Maths, English or ICT) then they must have passed a functional skills test.

I’m not sure on the impact of this on the two core subjects, but for ICT it all depends on what you deliver at KS4 and whether you are offering a Diploma.  OCR Nationals & DiDA are not ‘true’ GCSEs so are therefore exempt from the need to have functional skills… Therefore I can foresee a massive increase in the number of schools offering those 2 options and ditching the GCSE.

However, back to my first statement…’Functional skills are a fantastic idea’. I believe this to be the case.  The reason being is that our kids are, in general spoon fed.  They get help with coursework, how to write exam answers, essays etc… But, when they try to transfer skills from one subject area to another there seems to be issues. Many a time I have seen pupils using PowerPoint inappropriately in an English lesson and I am quite sure that our pupils fail to write ‘persuasively’ in an ICT lesson…

What to do next is my next dilema.  Having been on a recent launch for functional skills and seen the amount of money the government is throwing at it, functional skills look like they are here to stay.  Having had a few chats with our Deputy Head I reckon our best bet is to get all pupils to take the functional skills test in Yr 9.  This will mean that any pupils doing ICT GCSE or a diploma will already have deomonstrated their ICT functionality before starting their new courses.  Also think we will go with the Welsh board, have heard good things about their assessment… will trial it next year.

Websites, VLEs and SLG

Prior to finishing for the summer holidays, I found myself in  discussions with SLT about the differences between the school website, moodle (our VLE) and SIMs Learning gateway(SLG) and the need to justify the use of some, all or just one of the above…. From my own personal point of view I thought I would find this an easy task.  However, every school seems to use some of the above for a variety of different tasks with many of them cross pollinating.

This is how I have envisioned our use of websites, VLE. and SLG. (I would welcome comments on this).

The website

I see the website as the first port of call for virtual visitors of our school.  It should be a great advert for the school and take on the roll of a virtual school prospectus and newsletter. It needs to be dynamic and up to date and entice viewers to want to find out more about our school. To see our interpretation of this click here. It is also the gateway to our other web based applications, moodle, mail, SLG.

The VLE

We have opted for moodle as our VLE.  One of the main reasons for this is that a good friend of mine was already using it, so I was able to ‘borrow’ a lot of ideas and resources.  Moodle is our teaching and learning virtual environment where subject and pastoral areas have been created.  This is in the development stage and is predominantly used by the ICT dept and Sixth form.  It has been decided that to make moodle a whole school success we need to remove the shared docs area and make moodle the new and improved shared area. The VLE differs from the website as its focus is as a tool for developing the teaching and learning within the school and allow pupils and staff a higher level of control over their own learning/teaching.

SIMs Learning Gateway (SLG)

SIMs say that this can be our VLE… However personally I don’t think it is quite there yet.  However it will definitely meet the requirements of 2010 when all parents need to have access to online reports, attendance, behaviour (positive and not so positive). I see it as a Management Information System (MIS) where staff are able to access SIMs.net from home, write reports, check the staffing school calender and also to allow parents access.

So there you have it, 3 different packages, with 3 different roles.  Is this the most efficent use of all three? Do we need all three? I think that it is good to have all three, but I also might just be lucky to have to option to be able to use all three….

Flip Video - revisited

I have now had my flip video for a week and most of that time it has been evaluated by ICT support. The reason for this is that I want to use it for the DiDA 202 course and possibly iMedia. This means that my pupils have to be able to edit the footage. This is where flip video develops some issues.

At school we will be using Adobe premiere elements across an RM network. The raw video from a flip video is a compressed AVI… hence the reason you can get a reasonably high quality video on 2GB of storage. Adobe will import this format, but then requires you to render the footage first before editing. This means that it can turn a 29MB file into a 100MB file. You also need to have a DivX package rolled out across the network.

So from a secondary, video editing point of view the flip video suddenly has a few issues. However, I would firstly like to say that these issues do not necessarily out way all the positives:

• Looks great (until it gets security stamped etc by over zealous techy dept)
• easy to use
• good quality
• excellent accessories (waterproof case, helmet mount (we are a sports college) and colour coordinated tripod

Plus, after consultation with ‘ICT support’ they tell me that all cameras of this style are going down similar routes and some are even using file formats that aren’t unique to the camera.  Personally, I am going to get more flip cameras. Discuss with the techies about extra storage (its pretty cheap these days) and compromise on the fact that media back up might not be as rigorous as the rest of the network.

I would like to add that this is my experience so far, and if anyone has alternative views, feelings etc, then I am more than welcome to receive them.

OCR Nationals or DiDA

I am at an impasse. DiDA has been my KS4 life for the past 3 years. I like the course. I like the way it is developing pupils abilities to think independently. I like the eportfolios and the fact that it is virtually paper free….. However, DiDA is an optional subject so I am therefore left with very mixed ability groups.  For those not aware of the DiDA structure you can take up to 4 units and each unit is worth 1 GCSE.  Each unit is either taught at a foundation(C-G) or higher level(A*-C).  This means that in a mixed ability class I can end up teaching both courses.

This is where all my problems begin.  The foundation and higher units follow a similar theme but the end results are different.   This means that you therefore become a schizophrenic teacher and at some point one or both groups get a bum deal.  Then there is the fact that DiDA is run by Edexcel. For some reason (profit???), it becomes a financial nightmare trying to do their exam submissions and by the end of year 11 neither you, your exams officer or headteacher have aclue how much it has cost you and what the pupils are likely to get.

The main reason that I am now in a world of indecision is that I have been offered (for £300) a complete scheme of work that will cover 6 units of the OCR nationals and will almost certainly guarantee, if the pupils follow it properly and can demonstrate their learning, a decent grade at GCSE, and the potential for more than one GCSE.  The units offered are diverse and interesting and the administration seems a lot easier.  With the benefit of having your own moderator coming down and telling you whether you are doing it right.  On the downside, OCR is perceived to be a lot easier, less interesting and motivating for the kids.

So now I don’t know what to do….

• ditch DiDA and the admin and teaching hell it gives me
• adopt OCR Nationals, get good results, but potentially teach a boring course….

If by any fluke of the magic of the web, someone out there reads this and can give me some advice it would be vey welcome.

moodle…implementing a VLE whole school.

Virtual Learning Environments are one of the big things kicking around schools at the moment.  About a year ago we as a school decided to opt for moodle.  There were a variety of reasons, the main one being that a good friend of mine was already running moodle so I therefore had a contact when it all went wrong.

Moodle, is free.  We host it internally and therefore have had to pay for a server to run it on.  We managed to get our LEA to pay for it, due to some funding initiative linked with diplomas. So far moodle has been reasonably easy to use. However our original set up has caused a few issues.  (At this point I would like to point out that I am extremely out of my comfort zone when discussing all things techy… I am a user of software, resources etc and let my technicians get it working).  Anyway, our technicians felt it was necessary for moodle to be run via a https set up rather than http for security reasons…linked to the active directory. This coupled with an RM network (although for fear of being Belshawed -lol, it might not have anything to do with the RM network), means that certain aspects of moodle don’t work, unless you use firefox.  The frustrating thing is I have no idea why. Some powerpoints won’t open, attachments linked to news forum posts won’t open. Some flash won’t play….

I am writing about moodle tonight, because tomorrow we are upgrading it, changing the server, removing the https and figures crossed getting a fully functioning VLE.  It is extremely important to me, that it is working without any glitches.  In the school at present, moodle is being used predominately by the ICT dept and also by the sixth form.  I need to roll it out to all departments over the next 12 months as part of my performance management.  As I have found to my cost, when rolling out something new in the world of ICT, staff need to be:

1. 100% sure there is a benefit
2. positive it will work
3. find it easy to use
4. make their life easier

Personally 1,3, and 4 are a dead cert. Quizzes, online assessments (self marking), surveys, lessons, forums, games, gradebooks, accesss from home etc etc make moodle a great asset.  If number 2 doesn’t happen over the next couple of days then I’m not sure what I am going to do….

I came across a moodle bookvia twitter(thanks iusher), posted on issuu, and have linked to it below. I am hoping that it will be an invaluable tool in the training of staff in the use of moodle.

Flip video… first impressions

Flip video arrived at school today…First impression, what a great box and great packaging. Maggie in accounts (who had ordered it for me) was as excited as I was.  Got the white one (as you can see in pictures).  Took it out, put the batteries in and recorded some kids playing outside the window. It was that easy.  No manual needed to be read, no fiddling looking for the right button to press. Easy and simple to use.

I have now taken it home, given it to the kids.  My youngest (age 10) figured it out in seconds and is rather gutted her birthday isn’t til next April. I have tried to persuade them to write their own review…so far no luck.

Below is a clip of my chickens. (have had to use blip.tv as this seems to be the only way I can embed fileand it was filmed at 9.20pm). It was a tad windy and that is noticeable on the vid.  However, this is so easy to use, easy to download content, either by using the in built software or just accessing your videos via the folders.

So far I am extremely impressed.  Will be trialling it with the kids at school and will definately be using it for the DiDA coursework.

There are a lot of other reviews of the flip video out in blog world. A good one is here. It is the second review that Mark has done, this time using his class.  He is getting great results and is my inspiration for it working at my school.

Practical uses in education Part 1 - Adrive

Adrive popped into conversation today with my network manager.  He happened to mention that it had been updated and now no longer needed Java to get it working.  I then mentioned that I was about to back up my ‘My Docs’ off the school network ready to start afresh next year…  a cunning plan soon developed.  A week on Monday I will be running a ‘training’ session on how to use Adrive and back up their user areas.

The beauty of this is that staff will have a back up of their work which they can access from home.  Usually home access isn’t an issue as we have RM Easylink.  But for 2 reasons this is going to be problematic.  Firstly, Easylink has ‘issues’ with Vista and secondly our network will be down a lot over the summe due to high levels of maintanance and software upgrades,

50GB free storage, put to a good use in a school enviroment.  Step 2, educating the kids to use Adrive to back up their work.

Twitter and me…

Have just been re-reading my posts and have realised that twitter has been mentioned, linked to, but not really explained… Also I think I am a visual learner… Twitter is the biggest word in the tag cloud I added!!! So I’ll try and explain how I use Twitter and the benefits you can get from it.

In simple terms Twitter is a micro blog. You can only post 140 characters at a time. I’m guessing originally people were just posting day to day activities, thoughts etc that they felt like posting.  However, because you can follow and be followed by anyone, twitter has developed unofficial networks of people that share resources, ideas etc.  In surfing terms I’m still a bit of a ‘grommet’ when it comes to twitter.  I’m following more people than follow me and I’m still getting to grips with the whole process.

To be honest though, twitter has become my first port of call for info and the response time from other users has been fantastic. The big question is, can it be used in education.  I have started to dabble with this idea and so far I’m still undecided.  I introduced the concept of twitter to my sixth form ICT students, they have all made accounts and now follow each other and a generic ICT twitter account that I set up.  I use this to post useful links and info about the lessons. The beauty of it is, I can’t write to much and neither can they.

There are some teething problems… Although I may think that ICT innovation and new ideas are in the realm of the next generation, none of my pupils had heard of twitter and it therefore took them a while to understand the concept.  Secondly, they have to actively check their twitter account for new tweets… They seem to be a tad lazy at this.  So, will wait and see how well they get on with it and will post here accordingly.  In the grand scheme of things it would be fantastic if the school could have its own generic twitter account and every parent followed it…. one day.

Some stuff I forgot plus more…

In my ‘I can’t do this’ post yesterday I had a mental block on many of the things I wanted to post about so will try and cover a few more here.

There’s a chap I follow on twitter, Lee Lefever, who’s videos I stumbled across last year. He and his wife have produced some of the most simple yet compelling video tutorials I have ever seen ( apart from the ‘you suck at photoshop tutorials…but they’re in a category all of their own). Basically they are videos using whiteboards, voice over and paper cutouts that explain all things web2 and more. If you are interested in seeing them, then head on over to the Common Craft Show.

Also a guy called @iusher on twitter also introduced me to the world of issuu via a link to a new moodle book.  Issuu allows you to upload pdf files and then converts them into virtual books.  I am definately going to use this to publish resources for staff and kids. Also I have found that some nice people have also uploaded some Batman comics.(I’m a bit of on old school boy really and comics are one of my vices).

So there are 2 more things that I am currently a fan of. However there are still more chugging around my head.  For example, I use a website called Adrive for backing up my resources.  This is a fantastic site as it gives you 50GB storage free.  It is extremely easy to use ( as long as you have java enabled) and will even upload your complete folder structure.  The added bonus is that it will allow you to share files if you want to.

I’m going to be a tad lazy now because there is another blogger, Mark, who has just blogged on his blog a whole list of other web based reosurces that he uses and explains them a lot better then me.  However I have only jusrt downloaded evernote and am now going to have a look at toodledo.  I’ve been using remember the milk, but am finding it a tad clunky.

There are three more things I am going to mention…. seems like it has taken all night just to write these.

Firstly, if you wish to while away an evening flicking through websites that may or may not interest you, then look no further than stumbleupon.  All I will say about this is beware, once you start you may never stop stumbling…

Secondly, I would like to point you in the direction of animoto. (Thanks goes to DAJBelshaw for theads up on this one). Animoto is a fantastic website which allows you to turn still images into the most fantastic and interesting video clips.  If you go to their education section they will also give you a promo code to allow you to make full length movies.  I have used animoto to create adverts for the ICT Department on our school website.  Personally I think it works well.

Was going to mention microsofts Office live workspace..but it doesn’t seem to want to work..lol.  But I can say that it does intergrate very well with office 2007 and 2003 and creates a virtual drive to save work on.  Enough said…. think I’m going to go and stumble now.