The trial begins!

As of Monday this week, in my team we are trialling having 3 laptops in each class, with a cartoon character family member as identification. So far, so good. The feedback from the children and teachers is very positive. They like the fact that they can have access to the same equipment, all day, every day. Although there is not a large number of laptops in each room, there is no waiting for the old timetable system (where we would have 12 laptops for 4 - 5 blocks per week). Hopefully this should make for better usage. Time will tell...

The NEW Action Research Proposal

Action Research Proposal

Names:
CBS - Lead by Rochelle Stansfield

Audience for proposal:
Belinda (Eastnet Cluster), CBS staff

Rationale/Issue/Puzzle:
To investigate different ways of distributing ICT resources to maximise integration and productivity of students at CBS.

Learning Intentions:
To explore and implement different systems in distributing ICT resources within the Year 1 and Year 6 teams and monitor their productivity via surveys, observations and output.

Timeframe:
Terms 2 - 4

Implementation:
Term 2 - Survey all staff as to how they would prefer resources to be allocated. Distribute equipment according to the needs in the survey
Distribute equipment in the same manner we have done so far this year (set block bookings for each class - 12 laptops for 4 - 5 sessions per week)
Term 3 - Distribute 3 laptops plus 1 desktop per class, all day, every day, with systems in place for storage, charging, etc
Term 4 - (Beginning) Survey children and staff in the team to do a direct comparison between the two systems and analyse results
Present findings to the team, staff and cluster

Ethical considerations:
Check that children have signed and understand the Cybersafety agreement.

Resources:
Release for development, implementation and logistics
Team training sessions

Meeting with Belinda and Suzi

It was great meeting with Belinda and Suzi today. I was feeling a bit confused about the way in which my action research proposal was heading off on another tangent. After discussing my ideas with them, I felt very reassured that it was totally okay for me to shift my focus onto something that is probably a little less ambitious and to me is far more important than what was originally proposed. The information that I have gathered recently has lead me in the direction of resource management to maximise output and increase the integration of ICT in classrooms. I will need to discuss these ideas with Jenna to see how she feels about this idea. I will also be ensuring that any ideas that will assist with integration will be shared with staff members so that they can start implementing simple tasks that can be part of their literacy programmes (without the work!)

Knowledge Saturation

At this point, I think it is fair to say that I have been really impressed with the way in which the schools that I have visited have been using ICT. I am still looking at the different ways that ICT can be integrated into classes, so that it is simply part of the day to day programme - not a stand alone exercise. It is going to take time and effort to change the mindset of many, but hopefully sharing ideas and strategies with the masses, will allow me to develop the spiral of skills that will assist the continual development of skills across the school.

The Assembly item

It was my Team's turn to present at the recent school assembly. I had a few ideas in my head of how I wanted to do this. Firstly, I wanted every child to be actively involved in the assembly. Secondly, I did not want any 'wait' time between transitions, as this is generally the time when chatter from the audience starts and someone has to interrupt the flow of things to settle everyone back down. My idea initially was to have all the music edited, etc ready to go at the push of a button. Unfortunately, when this was put into practice, flicking from movies to music (back and forth from app to app) it was going to be a technical nightmare and I really didn't enjoy the prospect of accidentally clicking on the wrong one! The answer to my problem dawned on me - put EVERYTHING back into imovie, then create one Quicktime movie that would play from the beginning to the end. So that is exactly what I did - seamless!! That's right, folks, we are living in a digital world :O)

Kidpix Ideas - Compiled by Jenna B

Kidpix ideas 2010

View more documents from RochelleStansfield.

These were the ideas that Jenna and I saw at Summerlands Primary and Elm Park, using Kidpix. It is often seen that teachers run out of ideas on what to do or how to fully utilise such programmes. Hopefully, this offers some inspiration!

Visit to Elm Park

Jenna and I visited Elm Park today - it was great! It doesn't seem to matter where you go, there are always ideas that you can take away from the experience. Here we have another school that has disbanded the computer suite concept, and has opted for having as much equipment in classrooms as possible ... watch this space!

The survey ...

I have created a survey that should help us to identify a number of things that are needed for me to do the Action Research Project. How on earth can we move forward before we know exactly where we are and where we need to go?
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6FRLZGV

Visit to Summerland Primary

Well, this is just what I needed - some fresh, new ideas to get me a little bit excited! Firstly, I have come to the realisation that laptops and computers need to be in classes so that they can be easily integrated into the classroom programme. I was really impressed to see that there was evidence of work that integrated ICT on the walls of the classes. It was evident on our visit that the seamless integration of ICT was because the teachers knew that they had the same equipment in their rooms each day and there was no guess work as to 'whether the laptops were charged, did it have the right programmes, was everything going to load properly, is the desktop set up how I need it to be??' I really loved the idea of naming the equipment - cartoon characters and sports people - what a cool idea! Much easier to remember a name as opposed to a crazy number/letter identification exercise! It simply no longer works for me to have the system we currently have in place - COW's for each team, timetables, an ICT suite. The learning is disjointed and there doesn't seem to be consistency. So if this is what I think, what do the rest of the staff think? I think a survey is required!

Time goes by ...

I am feeling a little bogged down at the moment - there don't seem to be enough hours in the day. I feel like I really need to get into other classrooms to see what is going on and to motivate others. Jenna B has come on board with me, so hopefully we can work together to get the ball rolling.