edublogs

Cool stuff from BBC Common Archive: The "Pocket" Calculator

In the first of several highlights from the newly released BBC Digital Archive is this beauty: the advent of the Pocket Calculator, as featured on The Money Programme in the early 1980s.

How to get animated

As we head towards the end of the week the thought of getting animated about anything might seem a distant dream. However, I had a lovely mail from Magda who is keen to set up her own animation project with a school abroad, using video conferencing to create and maintain the link. She's already got her link and is ready to exploit it. Sounds like a really ambitious and brilliant project, which I hope she tells us about on the edu.blogs blog.

However, she did ask a simple question, one which I have somehow managed not to really cover. Where can we get more examples of animations? And where can we learn how to get our kids animating in class?

And in the classroom... well soon, anyway!
I am in the process of putting together a guide on animation, that will hopefully appear in the Modern Languages Environment I am helping coordinate at Learning and Teaching Scotland. The MFLE, as it is known, has no live link yet but promises to be a great resource filled with free (!) audio-visual how-tos and examples of projects in Scottish schools that have gone particularly well.

Until then, as Manuel said, "I know naathing... I come from Barthelona..."

However, there is the superb iStopMotion website that contains great examples of animations and lesson plans. A super starting point. It also tells you what equipment you need, although cheaper versions of hardware, or creative ways of using what you've already got, can produce half-decent results.

The site even gives an outline of the literacy objectives such a project might entail - good for convincing the Management Team to part with some cash.

Go get animating (and send me the results!).

Learning English through a soap opera

The BBC today launch The Flatmates, an online soap opera that learners of English can follow to improve their language skills.

The soap will be delivered online in weekly episodes, beginning today at 12 noon, and trace the adventures of four flatmates from all over the world who are carving out new a new life in the UK. Having watched the entertainment, hearing language "as it is", learners can check their new knowledge of idiomatic English in the language points section, following this up with a quiz.

Once more the BBC have produced top class resources for free. Is this a taste of what the new Digital Curriculum has to offer in January 2006?

Enhanced Podcasts: audio-visual revision tools distributed by educators

You can now hear audio and watch images on iPods

I've been taking a look around a few instructional websites these past few days, including one loaded with PowerPoints that explain some pretty critical notions in Scottish education today. The biggest problem with a PowerPoint or PowerPoint notes is this: looking at it without the person who gave the presentation serves no purpose.

"A podcast or MP3 of the person explaining each slide is what we need here," I cry. But how could we sync the voice of the person with the PowerPoint. How could we get the user to click the PowerPoint on in time, but without hurrying the user to move on when they're not ready? Yes, I too find most PowerPoints horrifically too fast to keep up with.

Enhanced Podcasts are the answer, I feel sure. At the MakeZine blog I found a 'How-To' on Enhanced Podcasts that explains what they are and how to make one:

"These are audio files that can have slideshows, URLs and some cool features we have discovered... Enhanced podcasts are AAC encoded audio files (m4a or m4b, m4p) with new data inside them that can be time based, like an image or a URL to appear at a certain time.

You can use Chapter Tool to create Enhanced Podcasts that work with iTunes 4.9 or later. Enhanced podcasts are podcasts that contain chapters. Chapters can be modified to display pictures or web links that can be displayed within the iTunes song artwork pane.

On a color iPod the "chapters" can be skipped to and a new image will be displayed as the playhead reaches the time stamp you created and display the image you wish."

And in the classroom...

Now you can create revision PowerPoints for your pupils that play right through with your speech explaining each slide, revising vocabulary or giving listening practice with subtitles or visual clues. If pupils find one point too tricky, they can flick back to the chapter mark and watch/listen again.

I'm going to try to make an Enhanced Podcast for French soon, but in the meantime you'll just have to watch this space...

Getting animated about language learning

This week, just round the corner from my Dunoon holiday, Partners in Excellence (PiE) have been running the first of two animation summer schools at Benmore Outdoor Education Centre. Admittedly, all the action has taken place indoors as the weather has been just a little inclement.

And in the classroom...
The three days are used to create iStop animations with voice overs in foreign languages. Coordinator Mark Pentleton is also experimenting for the first time in creating photo stories. I know this has been a very successful technique tried out by a few teachers in Musselburgh, using digital stills cameras to take pictures before adding handwritten speech bubbles. It's a great way to get pupils using the language they might use in a Standard Grade role play. This summer school will use cheap but effective comic strip software to add the speech bubbles, creating a more polished final result and developing more IT skills in the students.

I am hoping to come back to the West next week and see how they're getting on in the second summer school. Full report next week...

As with all things, it's best to see the final result before attempting this yourself. I will put up some 'how-to's later, but in the meantime, take a look at last year's animations and some photos from this first week's animation summer school.