Blink and there's a new idea fighting its way into the education armoury - this week it's GoogleEarth. Tony Barrett http://tbarrett.edublogs.org/ has done a lot of work developing the use of GoogleEarth in conjunction with feeds from GPS gizmo's. Also I was linking up with Papajo (Joseph) on http://papajo.edublogs.org/ and Jeff Utecht on http://jeff.scofer.com/thinkingstick/ who have all used the program in a creative way with pupils.
These ideas sound great to me, a bit of a problem when many school PC's are win98!! as GoogleEarth will only run on XP, unless anyone knows of a way it can be done??
I have been working lately on a project to improve writing amongst Year6 (10-11 year olds) pupils using the Making The News site http://kmi4schools.e2bn.net/wales_cefnfforestprimary/index.htm run in conjunction with The Open University and the East of England Business Network (E2BN). The aim of the site is to enable pupils to write for a 'real' audience. The pupils news items/video/podcasts are moderated by the administrator (me in our case) and then sent live to the site - their work at present has an education audience of 250 per month. Having an actual audience has a beneficial effect on the childrens writing, which they modify readily and eagerly. We are now considering extending this to a group that we have in school who are underachievers in writing. I also plan to use podcasting for this group to further advance their writing (for a real audience). I will report back on progress on this work.
I am still very excited about the iMac however no letter yet, I am currently looking for the best price on an iMac 13" 2.oGB RAM, 60GB HD - anyone with ideas welcomed.
As for me, well it's just coming up to midnight on FRIDAY 29th September, and having had a relaxing whisky and part watched a 'fluffy' film on Film 4 called American Sweethearts, I guess it's time to call it a day!!! Tomorrow 16yo daughter to Risca (20miles away) by 9.00 am for Under 16 S Wales hockey practice then me to Barry for 2.30 to play hockey for my own team ( Abergavenny Hockey Club - good website !!!) and then Sunday I take our Under 11 team to a tournament in Swansea (45 miles away) for a 11.30 start - and they call it the weekend !!!!
is there time for another whisky ????
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1 comment:
Thanks for the reference.
I've just looked at Tony Barrett's site and he just opened my eyes up to great Maths projects using Google Earth. I'll post them on my site when I finish it in a few days.
Sorry about the Win98 problem. Are you able to access GE from one laptop that you project and demonstrate with in your classroom?
Your writing project looks interesting, especiially the use of the real audience for the underachievers (is there a better phrase?)
And no time for shisky, whoops, whisky!!
Joseph Papaleo
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