http://www.esnips.com/doc/d056b10c-33af-423c-bdac-98558f3c647b/Music

http://www.esnips.com/web/midnightsas111sStuff/

Here is the link to all of my DTAs enjoy :-)

hmm what can a say about flowol l I suppose it is good for developing children's awareness of sequences and if the labels of the buttons were changed to directions could be good at exploring properties of instructions i.e. first open the gate next turn on the lights etc. I personally did not find this task that exciting but im sure if adapted it could be effective in the primary classroom.

I really enjoyed creating the interactive map last session we got into it a little too much and create a detective story which you can try out on the link below. I can really see the benefit of this for children and in fact have included it as a Central activity in my groups medium term plan. I love the idea of children using hyperlinks to create a really professional looking document which they can use to link together all of their ideas. it is an excellent concluding activity which can include all of the other ICT activities in the unit of work.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/39ce41ae-9b15-471c-8b8d-b5052fe579bf/detective-map

I dont know if this link will work but if it does can you find out who did it?

I found the lecture yesterday quite frightening the very idea that it is possible to track your exact location and your movements is quite intimidating, it stirs thoughts of conspiracy theories lol. anyway as far as its application goes I love the idea of being able to put photos and information on a map and think it would be a great activity in geography but also in science observations looking at habitates etc. anyway we will see if I am actually able to do it in the seminar.

And the Oscar goes too.

I hated doing that pod cast. Every time I tried to speak into the microphone I just completely forget what I wanted to say lol. I can really see the benefit of this for children though, especially boys who struggle with their writing. Radio shows or any other form of pod casting is an excellent way to let children who struggle with their writing access the learning.

As I said I really enjoyed the animation task earlier in the module here is a link to what we have done so far. The clip was kindly uploaded by Chris.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1XzJz8IOYZs

I am an amateur musician myself and often play around with my piano and guitar composing simple melodies. I must admit I was a little sceptical with this activity I truly believe that good music should be taught with real instruments allowing children to experience how they can use different instruments in different ways to create different sounds, how can this be done using ICT I can see the value of using ICT to record music but not in creating music. I found the technology extremely limiting but never the less after experimenting with it I can see its value in teaching children about different instruments and in giving children access to instruments they would not usually have I never the less believe the only way to teach real and effective music is using real instruments.

I don't know about anyone else but I found making the animation, or what little of it we were able to finish in the time allocated, extremely useful. To my surprise it was actually quite simple in the past I have always viewed animation as something that is difficult to do and would never even attempt to teach a lesson using it however having seen how such simple software can be used to create animations I would now feel confident teaching it in school.

One comment I will make though is that it is probably one of the most tedious things I have ever done, I can see children being excited by the concept of making their animation and initially being interested in using the software however I cannot see young children having the attention span to do some of the animations that we have decided to do. In school I think they would have to be shorter and much more simple.

ICT in teaching

I thought that the lecture this week was thought provoking but that from what I have seen in schools it is impractical at the moment. Web 2.0 has great potential in school but at the moment almost all web 2.0 facilities on the internet are blocked by schools. On placment the children were writing about their local area I wanted to set up a wikipedia account and publish the children's work on line but it was blocked by the schools internet security. When I spoke to the ICT co-ordinator she said they do not allow children to post work on the internet for security reasons. Facebook email accounts and most web 2.0 facilities are blocked schools with such limitations it is extreamly difficult to embrase the power of ICT in teaching.