My thanks to edublogs…. I am not gone forever, just browsing and writing around.

Bascially you control a robot by giving it commands. Use programmer-style logic for more complex levels that include functions to re-use.

Well its fantastic and its had the ICT rooms packed to the rafters. Its got me thinking, what does it offer thats so entertaining?

Easy to start. Quick short levels that get progressing harder. A fun wee character. Challenge, the later levels are certainly taxing.

My colleague has been creating screencast WINK manuals to help, only this evening I found that YOUTUBE has beaten him to the finishing line.

‘The effect of a very small change in the initial conditions of a system which makes a significant difference to the outcome.’

Our touch typing experiment? This term we are introducing every ICT class (year 7, 8, 9 and 10) with just FIVE (hence a very small change) minutes of touch typing using the typingweb free resource. In summary, Typingweb is

• 100% free
• Web-based, and can be access anywhere
• Teaches typing technique
• Provides progress statistics

Here is the education bit. A warm front to lessons, students arrive, login, access Tyingweb right from the intranet page. Punctual students get the first 5-7 minutes practice that provides a transitional phase into the lesson, students who are a little tardy get less time or miss out. No more disrupted or staggered starts.

To extend this, my mentees get a further 4 x 15 minute sessions of mentor time as we meet in my teaching room. My mentees performance in just 2 weeks has more than doubled, and as it is web-based some students are now practicing at home. In ICT lessons,students typing speeds is pretty constant, but students are eager to arrive and disappointed if they miss out on typing web time.

We hope that if the students progress to typing with 10 fingers and thumbs that will be a serious improvement on the two index fingers the majority are using now and an valuable life skill they will continue to use long after they leave Hamble College.

Q What ICT topic would you have delivered for wholeschool CPD on the first day back after the break?

Having thought quite hard about this issue I decided on the title ‘Working with Files and Folders.’ It was a simple topic but one with scope, but more importantly it was a topic that all staff encompass (as long as they use their network).

Next questions, ‘typically, why is wholeschool CPDs dull?’

Well its hard to personalise wholeschool CPD, I knew that I could not help everyone but I could get everyone to help one another…..? and that was my hook. Second I wanted to take a few calculated risks, I wanted to use teachnology, to showcase some of the tools we have been experimenting with. So here is my CPD session, help yourself.

Email links just before attending the session to the Online poll (polleverywhere)and Google Form. Create shortcuts on the staff shared area for safety.

No verbal introduction – French and Saunders – The Computer Whisperer.

The video set a light hearted mood. The staff where then asked to poll their ICT competencies before moving on to the small team quiz hosted via a Google self-marking form. The results were collected via a form, and although I thought having access to instants results was pretty impressive, I am not sure that it was such a hit with the staff?

We went through the answers and I side tracked on one or two additional College innovations that were highlighted by this task. I wish that I had planned and scripted this aspect more carefully rather than racing through the new College website, events calendar, document storage and remote access, helpdesk and shared resource on the Intranet. I finished with the results of our Everywhere Poll that strongly indicated that our staff have a positive outlook.

Was it a success? On the whole, I hope that the staff found the task practical and engaging. I’ll see what feedback I can gather over the next couple of days. I don’t think the staff were blown away – it was hardly the most exciting topic. In reflection I think that this activity may have been more powerful with 4/5 teams in a classroom run by three staff rather than 20 teams in the main hall. It missed the banter between groups and it was hard to manage so many teams.  In the meantime, help yourself to any of the resources.

The results are here.

Today I read and learnt about Conditional Activities. Now this a very motivating tool for students. Unlocking is something young people often experience in their gaming worlds. Complete XYZ and get a bonus level, the mystery room, new character, new move/power or end level boss. Exciting.

Other Learning Platform issues being discussed;

Integration with College MIS.

Visual appearance and skinning, this links with rebranding and renaming Moodle. Probably through student voice.

Accessing Moodle Moot.

Staff Training and wholeschool deployment and how this integrates with a Netbook progect and development on Sims.

What does it cost? For the most part FREE.

How it could be used for teaching? There are a range of options here.

Most Web polling software are free and they require no technical knowledge. Lets take a look at a few, but there are plenty more than that. Note the key differences are HOW users vote and How you interact with the site.

1. The very first polling software I used was SurveyMonkey. I used it to gather student feedback about the course. I then used this information to develop and steer the course. In the post 16 sector, gauging and responding to the students was very important. Still a very powerful tool, basic subscribers (FREE) are limited to a total of 10 questions and 100 responses per survey. So good for a cohort or group but if you want to go beyond 100 respondents, and up to 1000 or gain access many more features, there is a cost. 8/10

2. Micropoll- This web poll service doesn’t require registration and you can create a quick poll by simply typing all the possible choices in a text box separated by new lines. Great for quick hit question. Micropoll provides a variety of colored themes and you can embed polls in websites either as JavaScript or a Flash movie. You get to see poll responses on a world map and the paid version also supports SMS polls.

3. Google Docs – Simply fantastic. Create a new form in Google Docs with a range of questions styles. Its already been used to gather cross college data in our establishment. With the help of some online colleagues, we have added the function of instant grading. Here is a highly developed spelling test formwith extras, marked instantaneously – now I have your attention don’t I. Or how about lesson review forms for students to feedback to teachers. Here is a form for Unit 4 from the OCR Nationals, two groups in two separate rooms competed against one another. Tom Barrett does a great job with Google Docs. With the pros, come the cons. Poll embedding options in Google Docs aren’t very convenient and users can’t see the results after voting but you can convert answers to gadgets….. but that’s another meal.

4. PollDaddyis the most popular online polling software focused as an online solution. A free account from PollDaddy allows you to create surveys and polls for your website, blog and social network profiles.

5. StrawPoll – This is an interesting service that lets you run live polls on Twitter. Good for your PLN not necessarily for school.

6. Poll Everywhere – This could be a student poll, but also good for conference or staff CPD participation. I hope to work with Poll Everywhere in the New Year. Although fine as a web poll, Poll. Poll Everywhere also offers SMS Polls where people can vote though text messaging on mobile phones just like polls conducted on TV or radio. The basic plan is free though it only allows 30 votes per poll.

There are more, Notifu, Vizu Polls and Toluna. The question is, what works for you.

Which polling software is right for me?

All the services discussed above offer some unique options. For instance, Notifu allows polling via email while Micropoll lets you create polls even without asking for your email address. So, if you are doing a poll with students and want to use the result instantly or present the results go with Poll Everywhere, their ppt integretion is very neat.

If you are a doing a presentation in a conference room and need opinions of participants over a certain topic, try Poll Everywhere again, hoping everyone has either a phone or laptop they can join in with.

If you need polls for embedding in web pages, Poll Daddy, the free version of PollDaddy offers unlimited polls and unlimited number of votes, however you will need the Pro version for if you want to prevent fraudulent multiple votes from the same IP address.

For use with students and staff responses, I dont think you can beat the ease of Google Docs. Certainly if you want the students to fill in data, then Google docs rocks. Bring the data to life with Google Gadgets or Many Eyes.

Polling in action….

For me it is the ’scissors’ argument. Do you hide the scissors away from the children, of course you don’t, you show them how to use them safely…. perhaps this is not the forum for banging this drum.

So to the second question, ‘how do I get THAT Youtube video?’ or shall we be more generic and say all FLV videos from popular online websites? Its often a two stage process, getting the video and then converting it to a Windows friendly file type. Here is my new answer for 2009, thanks to another RSS posting.

YouTube FLV Downloader from Moyea, (along with a range of other products, some free and some not). A simple way to download, store, manage and convert your FLV videos from all video sharing sites so YouTube, Yahoo, Google, MySpace, iFilm, Dailymotion, Metacafe. There are even some simple tutorials on how to use it. So that’s the second question, I fear the first question will be long standing.

The reason for this post is that we recognised that we were missing the expertise to appoint objectively and on the day we were supported by Simon Walker, CTS Moodle ‘expert.’ His objective viewpoint aided the interview process and although it took an additional three contested discussions before we finally appointed, his input was crucial. This investment in the day was crucial as I truly believe that appointing the right staff is a key factor to future success.