Thunder

Where? - Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire
When? - 1 - 4 April 2008

What you will learn -

“In the age of digital literacy and creativity, educators need to seek out best practice in the use of the tools available.  Now is your opportunity to develop the ideas you have already had about digital creativity, to see how others are using these new tools with great benefits in learning gains, and to understand the pedagogy that underpins the excitement of digital media. You will learn in an environment where you are given the opportunity, inspiration, space and support to be creative with like-minded colleagues. All learning on this unique course will give you a thorough background in digital media but is carried out in relaxed and friendly manner so that newcomers to the areas covered will not feel intimidated”.

At this event, you will investigate a range of activities that focus on di!erent digital media:

• Digital storytelling
• Podcasting
• Creating content using digital video cameras and editing software
• Exploring the use of still images, music and animation in multimedia projects
• Methods for sharing digital projects on DVD and the Web
• Sharing of experiences, action planning and portfolio development
• Development of skills in subject/age group relevant project

Find out more at www.apple.com/uk/education/ati, (website to be updated by end of January 2008)

Cost - £500, (ex VAT)

Register your interest -
To receive a booking form to reserve your place at ATI 2008 please contact Fiona McGlashan of Impact Exhibitions:

By phone or Fax: 01223 237426
By Email: impact@appleshack.com
By Post:
Impact Exhibitions (ATI)
6 High Street
Oakington
Cambridge
CB24 3AG

Shropshire LA are looking for 2 keen and enthusiastic ICT specialists to support the roll out and development of their new learning platform, the posts will be full time for 2 years.

Further details of the post can be found here.

Feel free to send me an email steve [at] it4L.org if you would like additional details about these posts.

As some of you may be aware I received an iPod Touch for Christmas, what an excellent device it is but I thought it was lacking a couple of key applications. The main apps that I thought were missing were a mail client and a note pad. While at BETT last week it was hinted that Apple would be releasing some new applications for the touch. This morning I turned on iTunes to head over to the podcast store so that I could subscribe to the Thomas Adams Geography podcast and noticed a January Software Update for the iPod Touch.

The update, which costs £12.99, includes Mail, Weather, Stocks, Maps and Notes, there is also the facility to take web clips and add them to the now customisable home page. These applications really add a lot of weight to the argument to have a touch, it is no longer just a music player.

After supporting the Geography department at Thomas Adams I popped up to see the ICT team, who were keen to get their hands on my Asus. After a short period of time they had attached it to their network and were accessing their files across the wireless network. When they restarted the Asus the wireless picked up too slowly and the network connection failed and we were unable to reconnect it, this posed a potential issue, I shut down the device and did a normal start up and the network connection was made. It appears that there is an issue with the run order, so to get the network connection to work consistently you need to use shut down and start up, not restart.

We then decided to have a go at installing a piece of software and add it to the menu structure, while Jack was having a play I decided to search the web for some pointers. (Following on from the phone call from Harvey we decided to try and install ‘audacity‘.)

Installing Audacity was easy following these instructions.

Adding an icon to a menu for Audacity was easy following these instructions.

Last year I visited Thomas Adams School in Wem to work with 2 teachers of geography to introduce them to podcasting, while I was there they produced their first podcast.  Since then, as with lots of ICT training, it appeared to have gone quite until I had an email just before the Christmas break to ask if I could do a follow up session.

Yesterday I went in, the first thing I noticed was that Lea now had his own MacBook and Ollie’s had been ordered, over the last couple of weeks they had produced a couple more podcasts and wanted me to go through the procedure to post them to their blog and how to find them in iTunes.

By the end of the afternoon they had published 5 year 11 revision podcasts on:

• Settlements
• Tectonics
• Coastal
• Tourism
• Water

You can listen to these podcasts direct on their blog, feel free to leave them comments, or you can search for ‘adams geography’ in iTunes to subscribe to their podcast feed.

They are planning to produce another couple of podcasts that would complete the year 11 revision podcasts.  Their next stage in development is to make all the podcasts into enhanced podcasts by adding photographs to support the voice, following on from that they will produce some pdf files to support the podcasts all of this should be available soon…..

I received my ASUS EeePC just before Christmas and have tried out the machine as delivered. I have been really impressed by the pc and I believe that it can do 90% of what 90% of educators/learners require of a pc in school. After demonstrating the device to my advisory service colleagues many of them are now asking for one for their day to day use.

This appeared to be the message at BETT, where the ASUS had a high profile on several stands. The chaps from RM gave a good overview of the device at Teachmeet08.

Today, following a call from Harvey at Sundorne I am investigating installing software onto the pc. After going to settings tab and then add/remove settings I found several updates for the preinstalled software, I have now installed all of the ones that I recognised. In the list there is one that I am not sure about ‘EeeAP” after searching the web (ASUSTeK forum) I can’t find out exactly what it is or if I should install it. It appears that it might be a range extender for the wireless network, maybe I need to find someone else with an EeePC and see if we can get them talking to each other.

I still haven’t managed to sort out Harvey’s question but have now set up Skype and MSN and they are working well.  I will post an update when I manage to install Audacity to the machine.

Yet again, the people at TED continue to inspire and amaze me. I have just finished watching this video: