What+We're+Trying!

= Some of our ICT Classroom Experiences this year... =

March __Room 4__ have tried out the new pods of laptops, and used Comic Life to record their camp recounts and action photos. These were saved in their Room Folder on the school server. We learned that it was important to connect to the server with the Student log-in to avoid hiccups with the saving of ongoing work.

__Room 1__ used the Laptop Pods for Report Writing: Pages was used to publish reports on a past activity of the children's choice: initial drafts were written in their books, then edited and published in Pages. Children used spellcheckers and peer-editing techniques. Effective use of fonts and layout were discussed.Children used Google Images to select pictures of their choice to illustrate their published word, and saved work in progress on the Server in the Room 1 Folder - initially not easy for children to locate their files, but they quickly became used to the process. Initial Cybersafety issues were discussed in relation to accessing Google Images. Some children e-mailed images from home to include in their reports.

April __Room 3__ used the 2 pods successfully using "Pages" to produce Safety Posters and then Destination Brochures after the holidays. I used the classroom projector connected to my teachers computer and ran brief tutorials for a start so that everyone could visually see what their screen should look like and what to do. The children picked up very quickly about connecting to the server and saving in the room 3 Folder we made. Some of the computers wouldn't save to the folder on occasions so we bypassed them, saving to the desktop and then dragging the saved work into the Room 3 Folder on the server. Despite a few hitches, a wonderful experience for everyone. The children were enthusiastic and keen to complete their work and peer tutoring came to the fore as I could not be everywhere at once to help children individually.

__Room 1__ used Comic Life to both draft and publish joint holiday interviews, in which the children shared their holiday experiences, then reported on each other's holiday. Children are rapidly becoming familiar with formatting features (fonts, backgrounds, frames, fill colours, etc) in Comic Life, and enjoy the attractive results. The class camera was used by the children to take photos of each other, upload and edit the images, then insert into their joint reports.

__Room11__ used the pods to work on a Mothers day simile poem using comic life. The process was a learning curve for all of us.The children used google images for photos and clips. Children are quickly becoming familiar with fonts, backgrounds, frames, fill colours, etc in Comic Life. We connected to the server and saved work into our folder. The children were very excited to see the final results printed. Peer tutoring was fabulous as I couldn't be everywhere all the time and it gave children a chance to shine in a different format in our class. We finished our sessions with exploring maths games available online.

May
All staff attended an ICT Cluster Practicum which focused on the use of Digital Text - sharing information by means of photographic images, both printed and recorded words, and using movies to present in a multi-media format. Teachers took photos, imported them to iPhoto, switched to iMovie to incorporate the still images into a movie, using the Ken Burns pan/zoom effect, then added transitions, titles, music, and some recorded and added audio soundtracks. For some, it was a first-time experience with movie-making, and results were impressive! The challenge now is to apply some of these new-llearned skills to the classroom.

__Room 1__ used images of poem illustrations to produce movies using the techniques explored in the Practicum - children responded quickly to iMovie, and produced movies to illustrate their written scripts depicting characterisation. Enthusiasm and interest were high, and results pleasing - considering they were first efforts. The process used was:
 * 1) Draft script (describing a character)
 * 2) Import images into iPhoto from server
 * 3) Select, sequence and edit images in iMovie: apply cropping, Ken Burns effect, adjust times
 * 4) Insert titles and transitions
 * 5) Record voiceover from script
 * 6) Select background music from One Minute Music (freeplay), insert and edit
 * 7) Export movie to QuickTime for sharing (on CD, DVD, flash-drive, classroom computers)
 * 8) Share: to classmates, at Syndicate Assembly, take home on CD/DVD/flashdrive (later upload to class wiki)

A group of children has been organised to act as school technical helpers has been organised. See the GPS Tech Team page.
 * June **

__Room 1__ have again had a movie-making session, this time taking clips of gymnastics movements on our new high definition movie camera, then using iMovie to produce 2-minute movies using steps 3-8 above. The literacy purpose was to describe gymnastics movements (vaulting, rolling, balancing, etc) through both movie and recorded voiceover. Children have become more adept at recording their voiceovers, and more discerning regarding the soundtrack quality. After the children had shot their movie clips, the help of some Tech Team members was used to load them into iMovie on the pod laptops in readiness for use. Children worked in pairs to produce shared movies; cooperation and sharing were an important aspect.

__Room 2__ Towards the end of Term 2, these year 2 children had 3 sessions on the pods where they worked on further understanding how to use Comic Life. They produced 2 published pieces of writing with pictures from the internet to accompany their work. Some children have taken still photos that are in the process of being made into a short movie.

__Room 7__ have spent time with their buddies and the pod. Their buddies have helped them to use instant alpha to put themselves into a picture of their favourite place. They have as a class experimented with making simple pictures and a simple movie in Kid-Pix. Also put voice overs onto an iMovie for Junior Syndicate Assembly

__Room 8__ We have worked with Year 5 buddies with the pods. During this time the children worked together on Kid Pix.This was very valuable as each child had direct access to a computer. We have also experimented with voice overs, graphics and writing a story between 2 junior classes.

__Room 10__ Room 10 have had the pods and have begun to type up final copies of a piece of writing on them. The data projector has been used to show a movie, songs and also to look up information on the internet as a class and to model how to play new educational games on the internet. The children have been using educational games during reading and maths times that relate to what we are focusing on.

__Room 14__ Following the construction and photographing of our own cardboard vehicles, we made an i movie called "car construction". Each child had to write one instruction that matched the photo in the order that it was made in.

July
__Room 3__ have used the pods to produce brochures related to their holiday experiences. The kids have had fun using digital images and writing information. They experimented with lettering, borders and special effects. They produced improved images from the beginning of the year because they were more circumspect with backgrounds etc.

__Room 1__ produced Wordles, with children working in pairs to build shared lists of holiday-related words - as varied computers are in the room, these were typed into AppleWords/Text Edit/Pages, copied to clipboard, then pasted into Wordle (NB. - older versions of Safari don't handle Wordle well). When the Wordles were arranged (font, layout and colours chosen), screenshots were taken and opened in Preview, where the Annotate facility enabled name-labels to be added to the Wordles. Finally saved to the R1 Folder on the server for printing. Process was slightly complicated by the transfers caused by different versions of Safari & Preview, but children are becoming quite adept at saving using the server.

__Room 13__ have had a beginner lesson with Tony, in using the pods. We have learned how to handle the laptops and experimented with typing, using colour, headlining and deleting words etc. It was very exciting and inspiring and we are very much looking forward to our next session. Our next goal is to type our Gymnastics writing and publish it along with the photos and movies we took during Term 2.

__Room 4__ Working on developing Glogs (Glogster) to link into the Class Wiki - each student has their own page.

__Room 2__ After the July practicum, I used imovie as a way to show what has been happening in our classroom. Using photos of our technology challenges the children and I made 2 movies. They had input into what text to write and how long to have the transition. The same procedure was used to summarise what happened in our gymnastic programme.

__Room 7__ In July the children in Room 7 used kid pix to create a simple movie based on their favourite nursery rhymes. They also used kid pix to create a documentary movie describing their imaginary animals (flanimals).

__Room 6__ Introduced chn to Kid Pix. Made nursery rhyme pictures and chn typed out their nursery rhyme. Recorded nursery rhyme as well. Myths and Legends, Kid Pix also. Maths Language games on pods

__Room 14 __ We used comic life to experiment with words related to our topic "vehicles".

August/September
__Room 4__: Pick a Path narrative stories using Keynote. After a quick preview of an example and instruction the children were enthusiastic and quick to complete work. How to save this in a format to be put onto the wiki was discussed with Sue - have only saved them as PPT format to allow them to download onto their home computers.

__Room 2__ In August, the children in Room 16 visited Room 4 and worked within the KidPix programme, with the support of the older children.

__Room 1__ have used Keynote to design 1-Slide-Wonders, with a preferred theme selected, exciting word actions added, music soundtrack chosen, then recorded and exported to QuickTime. Stored on server for sharing with classmates and in Syndicate Assembly; several examples uploaded to class wiki.

__Room 7__ In September the children used pages to write recounts of the earthquake and used kid pix to illustrate their recounts. They used the class wiki as a learning centre.

__Room 9__ Room 9 had the pods for the first time. We had a time of experimenting and learning as a group. We then worked individually on the laptops using the Kidpix programme. After developing our skills with this we created our own "Gerald "pictures. (our class mascot) In the same term the children used digital cameras to take photos of Gerald around the school. We made this into an imovie with the children recording their voices reading captions

 __Room 12__ We have been practicing using the internet and how to do safe searches. Also searching for a range of suitable games that children can use safely.

__Room 16__ worked as a class, to produce a book using the comic life programme detailing their experience with Harold the giraffe from the life ed trust.  We used the digital camera to take photos for our father's day cards which were published and sent home.

__RTLB__ I have been mainly working on my learning links wiki which I created. It is for me to be able to direct teachers or parents to to support a student’s learning through the use of activities and games on online sites. It is still very much a work in progress but I have already shared the site address with a parent, a teacher and my two RTLB colleagues. I am also working on a pick a path story to develop social skills on keynote.

__Room 13__ The children used the camera and over Sept we have been doing the typing and photographing our class garden. November will be working on the pod.

__Room 1__2 we have been looking at publishing tools such as Pages for our descriptive writing. We have learnt to take screen shots and put them into Pages. We have also used Build Our Wild Selves website.

__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Room 5 __ We did keynotes (One Slide Wonder) and used alpha to put children some where round the world. It was also a language exercise with chn writing a piece to go with them.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">October
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> __Room 4__ Pieces of.. This was linked to the Class Topic - Plants. Children chose a fruit or vegetable for this activity and inserted facts about them. Builds and Transistions had been used previously with Wonder Slides. These Pieces of were saved as Quicktime Movies.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Room 2__ Oct When we had the pods the children used pages to make a chart about cockabullies, using text boxes and photos. This was their first time using this programme. The children have had the opportunity to take photos. After our practicum in October the class all made a pieces of keynote presentation. KidPix was used as a way of presenting a piece of report writing about going to the stream.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> __Room 13__ have been typing stories, using our digital camera and we have begun to experiment using our digital projector. We have the pod booked for Week 8 and we are going to begin to look at Keynote presentations.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> __Room 6__ Attempted Pages. Used camera for language and art.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Room 9__ This term we have used the pod of laptops to again use Kidpix, this time using our plant study as a base for drawing plants and adding the correct label. This involved the new skill of adding text to our pictures. The children have made great progress and are real experts on Kidpix now!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Room 1__ We used Keynote for the children to write and present their holiday reports. This involved planning 'trees', searching Google Image for suitable illustrations, adding captions/labels, transitions and object builds and actions, and then recording the entire slideshow. Will eventually be published as QuickTime movies for home sharing.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Room 10__ we had the pods for the first week of term 4. During this time the major focus was on using iMovie to create a recount of the dress up day we held on the last day of term 3. During this time the children learnt how to add music, captions and photos into their work. They also worked on transitions and choosing slide backgrounds. At the same time the children went on websites that had games for practising literacy and numeracy skills. Another programme they used was kidpix, selecting a background then adding pictures on top. When Sue Wiliams came into the class she showed the children how to make a movie using kidpix, and several children have since started their own. During times when we do not have the pods the children use the classroom computers for literacy and numeracy practise, as well as research for reading activities.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> __Room 11__ We have been using keynote to rewrite our own myth in the form of slideshows. We used instant alpha to make a picture of ourselves in a desired background. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> We wrote our own picture books using Story Jumper online programme. We used keynote to make a slide presentation of the life cycle of a plant. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> We have explored various online games - including physics games as suggested by Sue Williams. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Our next try is Pick a Path stories. - keynote "Pieces of " puzzles using keynote

__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Room 5** __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> iMovie using moving footage. Most worked on material pre filmed by teacher around our village and they did a 90 sec. movie. One or two took a camera home and used their own material. Also we did 'Pick'a'Path and Pieces Of.........? Willl develop these last two at another time.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">November
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> __Room 7__ nWe used the wiki and the listening post for reading.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Room 12__ We have used imovie to document what we have learnt in our topic Nature. We have also included descriptive language. We used the camera to take photos for this.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Room 1__ After our visit to the Waihi River we collated photos and movie clips into a class presentation using Keynote - in pairs, the children wrote and recorded a soundtrack

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Room 14__ As part of our unit on "worms", we all produced a keynote which included a photo of a worm and some facts. The children also learnt how to use the inspector. The children have folders to put their work into on the server.