Adventures in Teaching and Learning

I have asked my good friends on Twitter what Web 2.0 photo tools they recommend, in preparation for a CPD session I’m giving in a week or two on the use of ICT in RE teaching. Here are their (and my) recommendations:

Flickr – I think the number one choice of most. Worth paying for. Which reminds me, I need to pay for the next year. Anyway, I think it’s well worth it. It’s about the only web tool I don’t even hesitate to think about paying for. It’s about £12 a year. I use it constantly, and have about 5000 photos stored there at the moment. I think. (Supported by tweets such as @creativetallis, @davefoord)

Compfight – Strange name, great way to browse Creative Commons Flickr photos.

Flickrstorm – Another way to browse Creative Commons Flickr photos (thanks to @mtechman).

Photo Sharing Web Tools – A whole list of good Web 2.0 tools for photos. (@mtechman)

Gazopa – A way to search for similar looking photos (and, I think, videos). (@mtechman)

Cool Iris – “The fastest way to browse photos and videos”. (@victoriaellis has been going on about this for ages!)

Big Huge Labs tools – A variety of fun things to do with your photos (@victoriaellis)

ImageChef – Customise photos and clip art (thanks to @dominic_mcg).

Tag Galaxy – Visual way of honing in on just the photo you are looking for by gradually being more specific in the tags used (thanks to @dawnhallybone)

It’s amazing how many more photo and image opportunities, tools, applications etc there are now compared with two years ago. There are still many of the sites that I thought were fantastic when I first found them, but I think as I have become busier, and the amount of time I have to spend online has decreased, I have become more particular with which sites I use. It is good to have a reason to find out what I might be missing out on in the wider world of Web 2.0, and it makes a huge difference that I now have Twitter to help get more precise and focused recommendations. It’s also good to see that Flickr continues to be popular!

If I have missed out your favourite photo tool here, please leave a comment and I will update this at some point!

Two of my newest favourite sites to share with you today are …

SimplyBox

and

Free Photo Printing

With SimplyBox, you get a new toolbar on your browser window (Note to self and anyone that can help: I have 8 of these toolbars that are quickly using up too much space at the top of my browser – anyway I can minimise these all the top? Wasting too much space!), then when you see a picture, video or piece of text that you like, you simply box and save it. Then, when you look at your set of boxes on the internet, not only will you see the image that you liked, but it is still linked to the original website, so you can quickly find it and correctly attribute the image you are using. Works great with CompFight.

Free Photo Printing does what it say on the tin. It directs you to photo printing sites along with the codes that you need to get free or reduced photos. Fabulous! (Thanks to Sarah Fox for the tipoff!)

It’s the end of the year, the time when people reflect on their past year and set resolutions for the new year. So here are the reflections. Resolutions may – or may not! – follow.

January – Made a snowman! Will that feat be repeated this Christmas? Saw Doris Lessing at the Southbank Centre.

February – Loved Sweeney Todd the Barber with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter. Earthquake. Had an excellent FairTrade Fortnight Sixth Form RE Conference, which involved baking, football, FairTrade prizes and taste tests, as well educational input from different departments.

March – Enjoyed a lovely Holy Week and Easter Triduum. Discovered the National Gallery. Led some blogging inset at the Marist School – hope everyone is getting on with their blogging! Summarised some of the many excellent teacher and student blogs out there.

April – Collected my marked dissertation. Heard the sad news that Steve Sinnott had died. It snowed in London. Fiona, a friend from home, visited, and had fun being tourists in London, visiting the British Museum, Tower Bridge, Tate Modern and others. Samson and I watched the London Marathon. My friend Bridget got married. Appeared, with my Year 7 class, on Teachers’ TV.

May – The weather improved dramatically. Saw Chris Rock at the O2. Found the Awesome Highlighter website (which I haven’t really used, so I’m posting this here to remind me!). Spent ages surfing the net and writing about the applications I found there. Enjoyed meeting up with the TTP second cohort to talk about my experiences of Web 2.0. Started some classes on Web 2.0 for teachers at school. Took my Year 9s to the National Gallery as part of a Learning Outside the Classroom project.

June – Discovered Wordle! Presented a session on blogging at the Sixth Form Conference. Visited the Thames Barrier. Went to the Anthony Clark’s ordination as a deacon.

July – Samson’s book, The Jive Talker, was published! Read the reviews here, and buy a copy from Amazon here! The second cohort of the Transformation Teachers’ Programme had a lovely meal. I graduated with my Masters (MA in Education: Teaching and Learning) from Middlesex University. Weather was still very hot and humid. Enjoyed the Doctor Who Prom. Started making videos of clouds, taken using my camera and a tripod. Enjoyed lots of balmy evening walks during the summer holidays. Went paddling at the V&A pool. Bliss. Visited Westminster Cathedral to take photos for the department. Finished the month with the launch of the Jive Talker at Rivington Place.

August – The Jive Talker was published in North America (and can be bought on Amazon here). Discovered the Thames Cruiser. Went to a wedding reception. Enjoyed the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, and then fulltime coverage, all day, every day! Went to Brighton for the day. Went back home to Scotland for a holiday. Met my little Canadian cousin for the first time. One particularly good day was when we travelled through Fife, visiting the Deer Centre, and my old university town of St Andrews.

September – Celebrated my birthday. Back to school! Very busy, but in a good way. We attended the launch of the New Art Exchange, where Samson was taking part in the opening exhibition, Next We Change Earth.

October – The term did not get any quieter! I became Acting Head of Department, so even more work! Visited East Dulwich for the first time, with a family friend. Visited the Saatchi Gallery. Enjoyed teaching my Year 7 Integrated (Humanities) Curriculum about China. Saw Toni Morrison at the Southbank Centre.

November – Went to the Diocesan Heads of RE Conference. Found PhotoBox and Fotonauts. Went to Martin Creed’s flat/exhibition in Brick Lane. Enjoyed Quantum of Solace. Collected together a lot of different Advent resources. Very excited about the election of Barack Obama, as were all the pupils at school.

December – Have enjoyed meeting up with friends, and look forward to meeting up with more friends and family over the next few weeks. We had a lovely carol service today at school, and I am delighted to finally be on holiday! My camera has pretty much given up over the past few months, so I’m hoping to get a new one to record many of the exciting and interesting events that I expect to experience throughout 2009 – starting with the birth of my first niece or nephew!

Thank you for visiting my blog, whether for the first time today, or regularly over the past year, and I hope to be able to share some of my further adventures in teaching and learning, particularly involving Web 2.0, over the next 12 months. I wish you all a very peaceful and joyful Christmas and a happy New Year!

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Strange, the YouTube “post to blog” option doesn’t seem to be working, so here is my “More Clouds” video! This time, I took photos at (fairly random) intervals throughout the day, using (of course!) my tripod, then put them altogether using iMovie (8, I think), with some freeplaymusic that I quite like.

I’ve uploaded it to Google Video … hope it all works okay!

I used the tripod for the first time today! This is also my first time using iMovie 8 – mixed feelings!

I’m just back from a lovely dinner celebrating the work of the Transformation Teachers’ Programme so far. It’s always lovely to meet up with other teachers, and to share ideas and enthuse one another. There were a couple of informative talks, by John D’Abbro and Dr Baldev Singh. I was particularly struck by Dr Singh’s talk, partly because he began with a Wordle that I guessed must have come from our own information about the course. (Sorry if I got carried away at that point everyone!!) I have just realised that he got his PhD from a fantastic university: St Andrews. He describes himself as “just a teacher who is having fun“, which I think completely sums up my view of using Web 2.0 and new technologies in the classroom as well – a kindred spirit therefore!

The food was good too, and even though I lost my game of mindball, and could not manage to complete the Wii guitar thing, this was a very enjoyable event. Lovely to see so many people there!

I bought a copy of the TES today, noticing that the magazine featured a special ICT feature. Have just realised that it is actually a copy of last week’s TES, but at least the articles are still relevant!

One feature was about using digital images and Flickr. I found this interesting, as our school routinely blocks Flickr, since students can access so many images, some of which may be inappropriate. I have, however, arranged to have it unblocked for a lesson on Monday, when I am going to get my Year 7s to use its search facility to find an appropiate image to illustrate baptism. Do other schools block Flickr? Are there other teachers out there who use Flickr in their teaching? I would love to know how it is used in other schools.

Another aspect of using ICT in the classroom that I have explored earlier on this blog is the use of podcasts (it’s great to hear about Janet’s new podcasting adventure with her French department – follow the link on her previous comment to listen to her podcasts!). Another article in the TES magazine was about turning revision notes into podcasts. Some schools in the Barnsley area have even given out MP3 players in order to encourage students to listen to the podcasts and therefore revise and learn at any time. Bacause a number of schools are involved, there are already a substantial number of podcasts covering a wide range of subjects to choose from. Interestingly, at our Year 9 Curriculum Evening last week, one of the tutor groups came up with the idea of students producing podcasts, presumably at home, to help them revise their notes, as one of the ways parents could help support Year 9 independent learning at home.

I think this is the new name for the course run by Haringey PDC. I was asked by Jane Blakely to share the results of my research on using visuals and oracy strategies to improve written work with EAL students, as an example of the sort of projects prospective participants could partake in (sorry, couldn’t resist that final p!). It was good to see so many teachers there, interested in taking advantage of the excellent CPD offered by the PDC (maybe I should do a post on acronyms in education …). Ian Terrell of Middlesex University and the Midwheb Partnership was also there, to explain how teachers following the course can easily get a certificate or work towards getting their Masters (which reminds me, my dissertation is due in about 5 weeks or so …). It’s always nice to see familiar faces!

I have also found this link to the Haringey SACRE, which I am also involved with.

And, just in case anyone from the Scottish Learning Festival 2007 is passing by – hope you are all having a great time and are being inspired! I look forward to finding some time to sit down and have a look at all the downloads and updates!

Oh, and finally … I used the Honda advert (the one with the small cog that knocks against a bigger cog that starts a whole chain reaction that ends up with the car moving off a plinth) as a starter for looking at the Causation Argument with my Year 11s today. It went down well, and is an example of how having an IWB and internet access can be really useful – the advert is just a couple of minutes long and there are lots of questions you can ask about it. This evening I saw the new Ford advert, “Wouldn’t it be a shame if birds never used their wings”, which will be an ideal Year 9 starter to review last lesson’s work on Vocation: Taking Flight and Taking a Risk. What other adverts have people used to effectively stimulate discussion on the topic for the day?

I’m sure all Geography teachers will already know about the very interesting Geograph site, but others might also be interested in it that haven’t come across it yet. This site aims to have photos for every ordnance survey square kilometre in the British Isles. Some very interesting photos! I’ve enjoyed looking up where I live now and where I used to live, to see what features have caught people’s eyes.

I know it’s a bit late, but I have just discovered the Edublog Awards, and since there are lots of links on there, I thought I would let you all know, to give you the opportunity of looking at prizewinning blogs. I came across it while visiting this Flickr group about classroom displays, which also has a blog. I came across this group while viewing Ewan McIntosh (aka Edublogger)’s Flickr page, which, as one would expect, has a load of really interesting and useful Flickr groups – thanks Ewan!

Just like to add – welcome back from your holidays, Lloyd – I’ll need to go and check out your blog now, I’m sure you will be updating it very soon with loads of stuff!