Girls & Technology

I received a list today of the Year 9 students who have opted to study the ICT iGCSE course next year. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many girls had decided to take the subject. There has been a great deal of concern over the years about the lack of girls taking ICT, and even the Computer Clubs for Girls organization had little impact. But the girls will make up 60% 66% of our ICT course at ISP, compared to the UK average of around 40%. Maybe the popularity of Computer Engineer Barbie, launched in 2010, has actually made a difference!

Spanish Lesson

I was in a Spanish lesson this morning and was interested by the activity the students were doing. They've been learning the names for rooms and common features of houses and homes. Their task is to present their learning in any way they like. Around the room students were working in a wide variety of ways, using different methods - some involving technology, some not. In the picture below, two girls are creating a 3D house in SketchUp, which will be labelled and presented in digital form. The other two have gone completely down the hand-made route with drawings, scissors, glue and hand-written labels. I just love seeing lessons where the kids get to choose what tools they use and where they can go with whatever they feel fits best for the task. The technology just becomes another tool to select as needed.

iPad Art

Our Yr7s have been experimenting with an application called ArtRage to create artwork on their iPads. They started by doing a pencil sketch on paper and them imported this image into ArtRage. They then added colour & texture within the app, with the aid of a stylus. Their Art teacher, Mr Daniel, said "Considering that digital painting is new to the students and they have never used the ArtRage app before, they did exceptionally well!" I have to agree.

iPads in MFL

I realise this is not necessarily innovative, but here's an example of how technology supports learning in a relatively ordinary & invisible way. I was in an MFL class today, Bahasa Melayu in fact, and noticed how the students would use their iPads to quickly translate odd words that they were unsure of. In the past they might have used a dictionary, which would have involved fetching it from the shelf, flicking through alphabetically and reading the (often) tiny text. Using the iPad just seemed so much quicker and more instinctive for theses kids. They always have them to hand and a were using a number of tools like Google Translate, websites, online dictionaries and a variety of apps. It's a natural and seamless way of finding out some information. It's the simple things sometimes that can make a difference.

Another Animation

This is the next animated advert to come in from my Yr9s. A cute, simple advert for Stabilo Sharpeners. Turn the volume up to appreciate the cool sound effects.

Year 9 Animations

After studying the art of animation and the many styles and techniques that can be used, we opted to go for real-life 2D or 3D stop-motion animation. The brief was to make a short advert, promoting a product or service. The Yr9 students used their iPads to shoot their frames, mostly using the free app iMotionHD. Above is an example, made by Amelia, Jacqui and Vy Wien, which was shot and edited completely on the iPad. Pretty good, eh?

Teachers Geeking-Out

- a dozen great teachers
- heaps of creativity
- a stack of Apple technology
- an endless supply of food & coffee
- piles of energy and enthusiasm
- loads and loads of quality learning

That's how I spent the last 3 days.