CESI goes broadband crazy

Life

Following the success of last year’s event, the Computer Education Society of Ireland (CESI) has announced provisional plans for its 2004 conference. The annual CESI conference is a unique event organised and driven by practitioners for practitioners at all three levels of the educational system and emphasises the practical implementation of technology (ICTs) at school and classroom level. The probable theme for this next year’s conference is ‘The Internet and ICT’ in anticipation of the expected rollout of broadband access to schools and colleges throughout the country this academic year. The conference will take place in Coláiste de h-Íde, Tymon North, Tallaght from February 13th to the 14th. A CESI conference committee is currently working on a definite programme but it is envisaged that delegates will have opportunities to engage in practical workshops, presentations and more. For more information visit CESI’s website: www.cesi.ie.

Looking at new ways of learning

The National Centre for Technology in Education’s latest professional development course for teachers entitled ‘Empowering Minds — A New Look at Learning’, promises to explore a new and exciting approach to collaborative and activity-based learning. Designed and developed in conjunction with St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, the Empowering Minds course is workshop-based and non-prescriptive in design. Using LEGO Mindstorms kits, participants build and program models to tell a story, exploring science, history, art and other subjects in new and engaging ways. The pilot course delivered in five education centres in August is due for roll out this autumn and is open to both primary and secondary teachers. For more information contact your local ICT advisor or visit NCTE’s website: www.ncte.ie.

Software review

Who Took The Book?

Isn’t it a terrible pity that nobody in the Department of Education and Science has had the vision or the imagination to support the development of educational software for Irish children? While the Department is keen to see that new technologies are being used throughout the system, it is notable that, with a few exceptions, all of the software used in our schools originates from outside the country. And this in a country that proudly asserts itself to be one of the world’s largest producers of computer software!

Who Took the Book? is all but unique for it is one of only a handful of programs designed specifically for Irish children, in Ireland, by Irish teachers. And, needless to say, it was developed without a jot of support or encouragement from anybody charged with the development of Irish education.

And, I am pleased to report that this is a program that works. I have watched as pupils (from about ten to twelve) become absorbed in this intriguing adventure, travelling around Ireland, solving puzzles, collecting information and exploring their heritage as they strive to discover which cunning villain stole The Book of Kells from its home in Trinity College. In the course of their quest, children will visit each of Ireland’s counties. Once there they will have an activity to complete. As they progress they will be given information, via their mobile phone, which will help them deduce who the culprit was. The activities are varied and interesting, and encompass a broad range of curricular areas, including language development, reading, mathematics, history and, of course, geography. Additionally, they will be challenged to exercise their problem-solving and strategic thinking abilities as they go about their task.

In order to find information in the program, pupils will have to use the program’s ‘InfoPad’. This is an ingenious database of Ireland’s counties which is richly illustrated with superb original colour photographs: how wonderful it is to see Irish school-children using a computer to access maps, facts and pictures of their own country, and in the process, of course, absorbing large amounts of information without even realising it!

It is best if children use this package in groups of two or three. This type of collaborative learning is what is recommended by the Revised Curriculum for Primary Schools and indeed its other main recommendations such as learning by discovery and exploration, in an active, meaningful and stimulating context are all fully embodied in the program. As such, this program will probably be most effective when used at school under the guidance of the teacher, who will, no doubt, present pupils with a range of follow-up or integrated activities arising from its use. Who took the Book? is only available from Diskovery, which is currently offering a full site-licence for EUR99. In addition, for all purchasers Diskovery bundles a free site licence for The Normans in Ireland, another indigenous package which, in this instance, offers a fully interactive multimedia guide to this fascinating era of Irish history. Both programs are easy to install and easy to use, requiring no more computer skills than that of the users being able to move the mouse.

These titles should be in every primary school in Ireland. Every pupil of primary school age deserves the opportunity to learn about their unique heritage in a way that is imaginative, stimulating and thought provoking. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?

• Who took the Book? single user: EUR29.99
• Site-licence: EUR99

Diskovery: +353 (0)1-803882 — www.diskovery.ie

Web watch

Global Schoolhouse

The Internet is an excellent resource for education, offering access to a seemingly limitless library of information and a gateway to The Global Classroom. Traditional classroom favourites like pen pals have been superseded by e-mail pals and with structured e-mail projects, children can now work collaboratively with peers from Moscow to Melbourne, broadening their own knowledge and awareness of the geographical and cultural diversity.

For teachers eager to initiate and engage in collaborative classroom e-mail exchange, The Global Schoolhouse should be their first port of call. Developed by The Global Schoolnet Foundation (www.globalschoolnet.org), as a free online support for teachers and students, the site is a wonderful resource for integrating online collaborative learning into the classroom. Online, you’ll find a comprehensive database of school projects, allowing students from around the world to collaborate. There are currently over 900 projects available that can be searched by age level, start date, curriculum area, technologies used, difficulty level and keyword. In addition the Project Registry allows teachers to submit their own projects that are advertised on site to possible project partners.

Also on site is an entire section devoted to video conferencing offering advice, suggestions and a worldwide directory of classroom conferencing schools. Additionally, Global Schoolhouse provides a detailed guide for implementing online project-based learning in the classroom, professional development for teachers, news and discussion lists, links to online conversion tools, and other Web resources.

School of the month

Wired For Learning

Shelagh National School, Dundalk, Co. Louth — Principal: Joseph Mulligan

Shelagh National School is small five-teacher school situated near the border about 10 miles from Dundalk in Co. Louth. Back in 2001 the school joined the Dundalk Learning Network as part of Wired For Learning project — an NCTE-sponsored Schools Integration Project (www.sip.ie). Wired for Learning is a EUR1.9m partnership between IBM and the Department of Education and Science, and is part of IBM’s global Reinventing Education programme promoting higher academic achievement by increasing parental involvement and information flow between the home, school, and the community.

John Rust, full time co-ordinator of the Dundalk Learning Network cites the strong support from major multinationals companies as one of the main benefits of the project as a whole. This is clearly evident in the junior and senior infant’s room in Shelagh, with pupils engaged collaboratively with high quality educational software. The infant room is equipped with two KidSmart Early Learning Units specially designed to cater for the early learning environment. Each unit consists of a Young Explorer PlayStation and bench, an IBM multimedia computer, Edmark educational software and colour printer. It’s not just the junior pupils at Shelagh who are tech savvy, fifth and sixth class boys and girls make extensive use of the school’s ICT resources, actively engaging in Web based activities. Using the Learning Village, software developed specifically by IBM for use in project schools, each pupil has created their own Learning Village home page (www.dundalklnet.com/lv/shelagh/school.nsf/HomePage/Welcome), showcasing their interests, hobbies and class work. In addition the school recently won the senior section of IBM’s Treasure Island Cyber Chase competition, examining a wide range of educational websites and answering a series of questions based on their research.

Teachers too are getting in on the act, updating an online calendar of events that is accessible to anybody who needs to know what is going on in school and using online tools to have private conferences, with each other and parents. The Learning Village is also equipped with an Instructional Planner enabling teachers to prepare and revise their lessons, share them with others, and draw on resources from the Internet to enhance their lesson plans. Twenty one other schools, both primary and post primary, in Louth, Dublin and Cork are also actively engaged in Wired For Learning, collaboratively engaging in team projects. John Rust explains the benefits: ‘the project has brought together individual schools and formed a closely knit cluster of schools that are actively using ICT to enhance the learning experience. It has helped spread good practice from school to school especially in the area of special needs’.

From September, Shelagh’s networked computer lab will have satellite broadband access as part of a trial with DigiWeb and the Department of Communication, Marine and Natural Resources. Pupils and teachers hope to utilise their always-on connectivity to the full, broadening their use of ‘The Learning Village’ platform.

Future plans for the Dundalk Learning Network include a major cross border project linking schools in Dundalk, Newry, Banbridge, Armagh and Monaghan in a broadband wireless network using Learning Village to strengthen cross-community ties by examining common heritages from our past — Myths and Legends and Neolithic monuments. No doubt Shelagh NS will be actively engaged.

Classroom — Here’s How

Create a school timetable in five easy steps

You’re not dreaming: it is September again! The new school year is upon us with its trusty companions — book lists, notes, class lists and of course, timetables.

Why not go digital this time around and use a word processor to create all class requisites, not only will you save on ink and ruler wear and tear but your classroom display will look more professional and come next year you’ll have document templates that should ease your back to school woes!

For this tutorial, I’m using Microsoft Word to create a blank timetable but similar steps can be followed for creating a myriad of classroom resources including class lists, spelling grids, certificates, reports and much, much more.

Step 1. Open a blank Microsoft Word document. Go to the View menu and select Print Layout. Next go to the File menu and choose Page Setup, under Orientation select Landscape. Change the Zoom percentage on the Standard Toolbar to 50% making the whole page visible. Now from the File menu select Save, saving your document as timetable.doc in the My Documents folder.

Step 2. We will now enter a heading for the timetable. From the Insert menu choose Picture*WordArt. Next select a style and enter the required text. Click and drag your heading to the desired position. We are now ready to insert the table. From the Table menu choose Insert*Table. From the Insert Table dialogue box, specify five columns and the rows required depending on the number of subject and break slots needed. For this tutorial we will use nine rows.

Step 3. With the table in place, use the resize handle in the bottom right corner, resizing until the table is of adequate size. Next highlight the first row and from the Format menu choose Borders and Shading. Under the Shading Tab choose a suitable colour. Repeat the same process for rows four and seven.

Step 4. Type headings in each cell in row one, beginning with Time, followed by the five school days; use the Tab key on your keyboard to move from cell to cell. With all headings in place highlight the row, centre the text and from the Format menu choose Font, changing Font Style, Size and Colour. Next enter time slots in column one, and headings for break times in rows four and seven, formatting the text as above. To finish, highlight the whole table and from the Table menu choose Table Properties and under the Cell tab select Center for Vertical Alignment.

Step 5. Before entering subjects into the time slots, go to the File menu and choose Save As. At the bottom of the Save As dialogue box choose Document Template from the Save As type drop-down list. Now we can complete the timetable with the subjects required but make sure to save the changes into My Documents rather than overwriting the template we’ve just created.

Next time you need to create a new timetable, open Word, and choose New from the File menu and select General Template and Timetable.

15/08/2003

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