David Rogers

It was time to get outside on Friday. I asked Year 7 class to pair off, think of a place in the school and then create a description of that place to share with the rest of the class. The only rule was that pen, paper and pencils were not allowed, and definitely no clipboards! That was the input. The results included a map created from what was laying around (in the photo above); three drama performances; a phone video and poems written into the notepad function. The descriptions were imaginative and effective, and it was excellent to see the wide range of options that the class chose. This is an example of Doorstep Geography: powerful outdoor learning and ICT combined.

Today was the third annual Curriculum Planning Day for the Geography department.  These days are designed to enable the team to construct the curriculum. This post will outline some of the tools that were used during the day. Any day that the team are together, whether it be an off-site planning day like this one, or a residential, there is always the opportunity to strengthen the team. We used two collaborative tools today: Microsoft’s Office Live Apps and, an old favourite, Google Docs.  They were used for two reasons, the first was to familiarise the who department with how the tools could be used with pupils, and because I think that it’s a nice way to work (okay, I just lose paper!). Office Live a a recent innovation.  Through the Skydrive I created a shared folder: This contained all of the documents needed for the day.  I prefer using Office Apps because more people are familiar with the layout of Office documents.  With some of the team ...

Back in September 2008 I posted about the basic tools I needed to survive the teaching week. We have new Teacher Learning Communities at school this year. It's a collection of teachers that have a common professional development need. I have been asked to facilitate the eLearning group. The first session can be found here . For the next session I want to share the top 5 eLearning tools that help to facilitate learning - this includes in the planning of lessons too. This is in part inspired by Tom Barrett's new e-newsletter , especially the 'Tom's Tech Tip' section. This isn't settled yet but: First - decide whether technology is the best way forward. Is there a better, more appropriate tool. For example, I love my Moleskin notebook as I still write (and spell) quicker with a pen - a product of my education that was not centered on technology. In addition, it is often more useful and productive to speak over the phone or face-to-face rather than via emai...

Today's session was all about possibilities. Hopefully, I covered a range of ideas that can be used in the classroom. These simple and effective ideas all have one thing in common: they enhance and support learning. If you want students to copy your slide out - just print a copy! Here are the slides used today: Power Point Or PowerPointless View more presentations from geogrocks . And the Wallwisher task can be found here . Add your requests so that we can plan the next sessions.

After seeing this post by Kenny on SLN I was reminded about a resource I haven't used. This excellent example of using the wall got me thinking. I created this wall for a low ability Year 9 group. There are only 7 of them, so an ideal class to use e-learning with. I asked them to say what they'd like to learn about volcanoes. Many thanks Kenny for flagging this excllent resource! I've also used your excellent rainforest facts idea with Year 8!

Presentaion To Staff View more presentations from geogrocks . This was a presentation given to staff during a recent interview for a Director of E-Learning post. I decided to use pictures to illustrate my points. From experience, I have found that doing simple things well and using old technologies more effectively (those that have been around for a while but not used effectively to support learning) are the key to transforming learning, especially in schools where the e-learning journey has just begun. The presentation was aimed at the school in question. The first two slides sum up what I believe to be the fundamental points in developing e-learning: 1. that technology is just a tool in the box and needs to be used appropriately. Also, technology needs to be developed in conjunction with curriculum innovation and in partnership with teachers and pupils. Many thanks to @GeoBlogs for the quote via Twitter. 2. Existing technology is often not used to support learning effectively as ...

As part of the interview process yesterday I had to talk to a group of students. My brief was to talk about how new-technologies would change learning. Quite a tricky subject as the definition of 'new' varies immensely depending on your personal experience.As this session was being watched by a member of SLT, it was also about communicating a vision of e-learning. Taking inspiration from Doug Belshaw I decided upon a low-tech presentation technique. I took in a set of props and set them upon the table in front of the students. After introducing myself I explained that each item represented an aspect of e-learning. I had chosen some quite personal items so that the students and observers could gain an insight into my personality and interests. Tiny Welsh Kit Represented collaboration. Wales is the best ruby team and will collaborate with other teas during the British Lions tour. New technologies can be used to build personal learning networks on a vareity of scales, from ...

Have been introducing a Year 8 lower ability class to data collection, presentation and spatial analysis. This led to a rather random Tweet on Tuesday. I asked my network to tell me their location and whether they preferred their bread toasted on one, or both sides before adding the cheese when making cheese on toast. What led up to this? Well I was telling the class about my theory that Northern people liked their cheese on toast different to those down south. This theory, I explained, comes from my time working with the Hampshire Outdoor Education Service. The pupils challenged me ('Prove it!') and so I decided to set a hypothesis based upon my assumption. The next problem was how to collect data! The class cam up with the questionnaire idea although we identified that to be too geographically limited. I said I would ask my personal learning network. This modelled informal learning to the pupils. Thank you to those that replied! An unintended side effect was that my Facebo...

Vivo Miles has hit school. The scheme has had excellent feedback from staff and pupils and is already making a difference to behaviour and motivation. Look out for a Portsmouth based seminar on the system coming soon. The system is based upon on-line banking so can be linked to the business and enterprise curriculum. Pupils can earn interest, be taxed (money going to charity) and have to look after their card, user details and pin number. The first Vivo console is up and running in the school also, hope to get some feedback and details about this soon. Vivo as a compoany? I have to say that so far customer servivce and technical support have both been excellent. As the company is in its early days still, they are quick to respond to feedback. Was also very pleased to find that Vivo also has a iPhone site!