Activity Ideas

QuadBlogging and Blogging the Leap Year projects

Posted on Jan 20, 2012 in Activity Ideas, Digital Media, Literacy Resources | 0 comments

A quick post to make my readers aware of an excellent project set up by Deputy Headteacher David Mitchell. He’s developed an excellent model for school collaboration called Quadblogging which sets up groups of schools to talk, share ideas, information and comment on each others’ work. At present there are more than 1000 classes in 27 countries working together creating some incredible moments of learning as well as fellowship. It’s an excellent idea, and the project is open to any school around the world, so get in touch with David if you want your class to get involved.

An exciting extension of this is the Feb29th.net project. Feb29th.net is a global blogging project that will cross all age groups and continents. As soon as Feb 29th 2012 begins in Tonga, the Feb29th.net website will open up to collect posts for a single day.

The Feb29th blog will capture posts from all over the world on this rare day until midnight in the Western Pacific. The result will not only be a celebration of technology, but a celebration of audience and purpose, who will be the youngest author? Who will be the oldest? Which country will top the most posts?

The aim is to allow any visitor on 29th Feb to post; these will be moderated on the day, as this will also be open to pupils in educational establishments across the globe.

To find out how your school can take part in the Feb 29 project visit : http://feb29th.net/

For more information about QuadBlogging, visit: http://quadblogging.net/

Dumpr – fun with your photos

Posted on Jan 19, 2012 in Activity Ideas, Interactive Whiteboards, Useful Links, Web Tools | 1 comment

Dumpr is a great little website that has lots of tools for doing creative things with your images. Simply choose an effect from the 21 on offer, upload your photograph and Dumpr will do the rest. You can then save your image to use elsewhere.

For example, turn an image into a Rubiks Cube:

This is a great way to create avatars images for social media, or present your images in creative ways in blog posts or student presentations. The site is free to use. Take a look at : http://www.dumpr.net/

And if you like Dumpr. also check out Big Huge Labs which has some other fun tools.

Thanks to Jan Webb (@janwebb21) for the link.

Got any other sites like this you can recommend? Share them in the comments!

Beautiful Curves – fun drawing tool

Posted on Dec 21, 2011 in Activity Ideas, Art Resources, Web Tools | 1 comment

Beautiful Curves is a cute little drawing application, creating almost organic-looking artwork. According to its creator “Beautiful curves simulates that little bit of randomness in life, where you never know whats going to happen next.”

It’s a fun application, which would work on your interactive whiteboard.

Check it out here.

Play Music with the Virtual Keyboard

Posted on Dec 20, 2011 in Activity Ideas, Games and interactives, Other Subjects | 1 comment

The virtual keyboard is a fun on-screen music keyboard that lets you play music on your computer. You can either tap the keys on your Interactive Whiteboard, use the mouse, or just press the keys on your computer keyboard (using the A to @ keys, and the row above).

You can choose from several different musical instrument sounds from piano to organ to guitar and even steel drums.

It’s fun, and even better, it’s free.

Check it out here and although you can select a virtual drum beat to go along with your track if you want someone to accompany you, don’t forget the virtual drumkit too.

Thanks to Tim Rylands for the link.

QR Voice – talking QR Codes

Posted on Dec 18, 2011 in Activity Ideas, Web Tools | 1 comment

QR Voice provides an interesting angle on the regular QR codes that have been doing the rounds recently. QR voice encodes a given text message into QR code that once scanned by a QR scanner smartphone application reproduces the message with a synthesized voice.

So basically you type the text in (up to 100 characters) and QR voice gives you the link.

For example, scan this with a QR reader on your mobile phone such as QuickMark

You could use this to make scavenger hunts, or give additional information on a worksheet or wall display. You can also choose from the language settings, so MFL teachers could give instructions for a scavenger hunt in French or Spanish perhaps?

Is maybe a little gimmicky, but as something extra to try now and then you might find some interesting uses for it.

Check it out at http://qrvoice.net

Peerwise online assessment tool

Posted on Dec 13, 2011 in Activity Ideas, Useful Links | 0 comments

Peerwise is an free online assessment tool for teachers and students. Teachers can set up their own tests for their students to do. Students can also set up and share their own tests with each other.

You need to register for an account to use the site, but it is free to do so.

Go take a look at : http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/ 

If you’ve tried PeerWise, let me know what you think of it in the comments.

Thanks to  @paulbrichardson for sharing the link on Twitter.

AnswerGarden – quick, simple brainstorming

Posted on Dec 8, 2011 in Activity Ideas, Useful Links, Web Tools | 0 comments

AnswerGarden is an interesting site which you can use for collecting short pieces of data from your class, blog readers or from anyone with an internet connection.

You simply set up an answergarden page by asking a question. Visitors to that page can then enter a short (20 characters) response – which are then displayed on the page below the question. Admin tools let you limit how many posts can be made from any ip address at a time, and an admin password can be set up if you want to.

For an example, take a look at http://answergarden.ch/view/20438

This would be good for brainstorming in a class, collecting words for different themes for creative writing, or simple data collection. You could also use it for quick feedback on a session. You can’t write a lot, so answers need to be short – it wouldn’t be possible to collect things like weblinks via this site.

You can share your page via a link, automatically share on Twitter and Facebook or get an embed code to share on you rblog or VLE. The site will even generate a QR code for you which users can scan with their phones.

When you’ve finished, the collected words can be exported to wordle or tagxedo to create a wordcloud – a great idea.

Thanks to Chris Mason (@57Mason) for sharing this via Twitter during #asechat

It’s definitely an interesting site, and could be a useful alternative to sites like WallWisher if you just want something quick. And even better, it’s totally free!

Check it out at : http://answergarden.ch/

The #ASEChat Interactive Science Links Summary

Posted on Dec 7, 2011 in Activity Ideas, Interactive Whiteboards, Science Resources, Useful Links | 0 comments

Monday evening saw my first attempt to moderate a twitter chat as I took the reigns of the #asechat hashtag for an hour. For those that don’t know, #asechat is the official hashtag for the Association for Science Education and everyone with an interest in science teaching is invited to take part in the chat.

The topic for Monday’s chat was Interactive resources in Science. Here are some of the many links that were shared during the hour, in no particular order:

Phet Science Simulations : http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/

Freezeray : http://freezeray.com/

Algodoo interactive physics sandbox : http://www.algodoo.com/wiki/Download

Exploriments : http://www.exploriments.com/

Free Interactive resources from Yenka: http://www.yenka.com/freecontent/search.action?r=new

Explore learning : http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspResourceCatalog

How Big Really: http://howbigreally.com/

Scales and relative sizes : http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

Explore Learning : http://www.explorelearning.com/

Virtual Field Trips : http://www.takeyouvirtuallyeverywhere.com/

Drugs effect on synapses animations http://www.jellinek.nl/brain/start.htm

AnswerGarden : http://answergarden.ch/

Interactive Food webs at  http://www.gould.edu.au/foodwebs/kids_web.htm

Nobel Prize Winners games site recommend Pavlov’s Dogs and EKG  http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/

Online water weed simulation http://www.saddleworth.oldham.sch.uk/science/simulations/waterweed.htm

domo.goanimate.com to share ideas on big screen as starters/plenaries

and also some primary links:

iBoard : http://www.iboard.co.uk/curriculum.htm#science-year1sci_yearyear1

Childrens University of Manchester : http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/

Thanks to @brittgow, @Bio_Joe, @57mason, @Mrsdsarah, @NeedhamL56, @agittner, @Activboard_nz @Lethandrel and many more for sharing these links!

I have added all these to my own list at http://www.delicious.com/dannynic/iwb+science

Blog Posts that may be useful

Some blog posts on this site that might also be relevant:

http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2010/02/10-secondary-science-resources-for-your-whiteboard/

http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2010/02/10-primary-science-resources-for-your-whiteboard/

http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2011/05/ase-article-using-a-visualiser-in-primary-science/

http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2011/01/iwbs-8-ideas-to-keep-it-simple/

You can find the archive of all the past #asechat’s here : http://www.ase.org.uk/news/ase-chat/

Inanimate Alice – a digital novel

Posted on Dec 2, 2011 in Activity Ideas, Interactive Whiteboards, Literacy Resources | 0 comments

I can’t believe I’ve not written about Inanimate Alice before. Set in the early years of the 21st century and told through text, sound, images, music and games, Inanimate Alice is the story of Alice and her imaginary digital friend Brad.

This “transmedia” story is told over 10 increasingly interactive and complex episodes. Created around a high-quality text, the story is suitable for the deep-reading and re-reading necessary for academic investigation. The production is unique in that the complexity of the story as well as the interactivity increases with each episode, directly correlating with Alice’s age and developing technological proficiency as the game designer she is to become.

Through embedded puzzles and games, together with the creative inspiration, Inanimate Alice makes the reader a direct participant in telling the story. The story is available in French, German, Italian and Spanish too.

Several episodes are available now, with more to come in the future. I’ve been really impressed with the quality of the content so far.

The Inanimate Alice website has downloadable resources for teachers and parents. On the Promethean Planet website you will find a teachers guide to using Inanimate Alice as well as  teaching resources for using it in the classroom, including flipcharts, a mindmap and user generated content.

Also look at Alice’s School Report : Whiteboards.

Find out more at http://inanimatealice.com