Details here about an interesting education event you and your school might be interested in. Tickets can be booked here.
May 18, 2021
by Jean
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Blog Archives
May 12, 2021
by Jean
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Drawing to learn anything: no drawing skills required.
Here’s a great opportunity to hear art educator Paul Carney introduce his book ‘Drawing to Learn Anything’. As he says “Do not be put off using this book if you can’t draw. If you can write your name you will be able to use the simple drawing techniques outlined.” Being able to represent information visually for yourself and to your learners can be such a useful skills when you work in education. There are many opportunities for you to use drawing as one of your teaching approaches when supporting learning in all subjects in the curriculum. You can also use drawing to help you take useful notes and collect information as part of your university course.
Book a free place here.
February 13, 2021
by Jean
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Mathematics resources and ideas!
Some useful resources to support learning in mathematics:
The Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) have put together a collection of resources to support mathematics away from the screen. You can access it here. It is huge collection of useful recommendations from members of the ATM/MA joint primary group and well worth exploring.
One of my colleagues here at the University of Northampton, Lucy Westley, made this mathematics digital classroom using GoogleSlides. It gives you the opportunity to explore the range of mathematics resources available to support learning. Have a look at it here.
Another interesting resource is this from Mathigon. It gives you access to a wide range of mathematics manipulatives to use in digital learning, along with puzzles, games and information to use in supporting learning.
January 29, 2021
by Jean
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Creating with BBC sound effects!
BBC Sound Effects is a useful site that can be used to create resources. It can be accessed here.
It can be searched to find a huge variety of sounds that can be downloaded or linked to for educational purposes. Read more about the terms of use here.
As can be seen on the screenshot there is a ‘mixer mode’ where sounds can be chosen and played together to create a soundscape. Have a go at this here.
Combining sounds with images can be an interesting and creative activity. Here’s an example I have made, adding environmental sound to Georges Seurat’s painting ‘A Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’. I have used a Google Slide. I’ve chosen and downloaded the sounds to Google Drive and then used ‘insert / audio’ to add them to the slide.
It would be possible to do this in Powerpoint, BookCreator and ThingLink.
January 26, 2021
by Jean
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Using Mote to add your voice to google docs and slides
What is Mote?
Mote is a Chrome extension. It allows you to add voice feedback within Google Classroom, Docs, Slides etc. The free version allows you to record for 30 seconds and the various subscriptions allow for 90 seconds of recording at a time.
How do I add it?
Here is a short video to show you how to add it.
How do I use it?
There are more videos about how to use it here including this one below about using Mote.
I’ve added a Mote comment to this document.
If you want to listen to the comments you also need to have installed the Mote chrome extension.
January 14, 2021
by Jean
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WindowSwap in the classroom
You will probably have come across the site WindowSwap this week. It can be accessed here.
It is a simple series of video views through windows around the world and as such has so much potential for use in learning.
Each window lasts ten minutes and includes sound, which can be switched on or off. You can move on to another random window by clicking the bar at the bottom of the screen and the name of the place where the window is appears in the top right of the screen. The one you can see here is in Hazelbrook, New South Wales, Australia.
Here’s a Jamboard with some ideas for using WindowSwap and you can see it as a Jamboard here. I’m sure you will have lots of other ideas too – why not add them as comments below?
January 9, 2021
by Jean
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Supporting remote learning
Many of you will be planning and delivering learning remotely since the recent changes in school opening.
The Oak National Academy is providing a wide range of plans and resources to support schools and these are for all key stages and subjects.
You can explore these here.
In addition from week beginning January 11th 2021 the BBC is broadcasting a range of educational programmes.
Here is the timetable for primary schools and you can see the secondary timetable here.
There is more information about what the BBC is offering here.
December 14, 2020
by Jean
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Christmas ideas
November 20, 2020
by Jean
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Digital Futures Commission
Today, on World Children’s Day, the Digital Futures Commission (DFC) has been launched to explore digital innovation with a focus on children and young people and informed by their voices. Their research focus is on:
- play in a digital world
- beneficial uses of education data
- guidance for innovators
You can read the results of a consultation called Children and Young People’s Voices here. The report focuses on the question: what do children and young people value about the digital world and what changes do they call for? in relation to the three research focuses listed above.
Today the DFC has launched a consultation on play called ‘Free play in a Digital World’ and is seeking views from children and young people, parents and carers, and professionals who work with children.
You can download it here. The consultation opens today and runs until the end of February 2021. If you fall into any of the categories above you can join in by taking part in a 45 minute discussion online. Read more details on p4 of the document.
You can also read more about free play and why it matters here in a blog post by Dr Kate Cowan who has written a review called The Panorama of Play. As a student you would read the blog post as a way into reading the actual review, which you would find informative for your work in PDT1076.
October 2, 2020
by Jean
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Black History Month and Black Lives Matter resources
The National Literacy Trust have recently shared some resources to support educators planning for October’s Black History Month. The resource Black Lives Matter: Book lists for ages 0 to 16+ features books by black authors and illustrators and exemplify the Black Lives Matters movement. They are organised in in lists for 0 to 4 years, 5 to 8 years, 9 to 12 years, 13 to 16 years and 16+.
The resource can be accessed here.
Another resource, part of the Words for Life series, is called “Learn to be an anti-racist”. This collects together a number of resources to use with children in making sense of the news and hear from those who have experienced racism. These can be accessed here.
