morag.macdonald

Just back from the Scottish Learning Festival at the SECC. I have really enjoyed this years event as I was  not presenting or responsible for a young bear , able to take time to find out the things I needed to find out about.

First seminar was about the BBC online archive service which will soon be available . A huge range of video clips covering every topic you can think of and which will continue to be expanded, was described by both a secondary and a primary practitioner in the context of their subjects. An explanation of how to download and embed the clips into Powerpoint was provided. I assume that the clips will embed into other software such as Keynote, Kidspiration or Promethean’s ActivPrimary/Studio.

I spent some time chatting at the Apple stand to ensure I buy the correct adaptor for the Mac to projector. The guy I spoke to was an Apple educator who was also able to give me a quick tutorial on I Can Animate which I hope to use with the children this session. I then popped over to Kudlian who produce the software and spoke to them about FreeText which I had trialled last session with the 30 day free trial and had really liked. At only £95 for a site licence, it would be an excellent word processing tool for our Macs and is available to download for PC.

I spotted KidPix 3 at the same stand and had a look. The KidPix 4 that I have been using with the children for their Christmas cards is produced by Riverdeep, but may no longer be available at a reduced cost through LTS apparently. I suggested to LTS they may wish to talk with Kudlian , as their version looks excellent, and integrates with the iLife applications on the Mac.

My next seminar was entitled, “Creating a pedagogical meeting place in Primary One” presented by Kevin Kelman, head of Burnside Primary in South Lanark. Kevin spoke inspiringly about the changes they have made to the methodology used in the P1 and now into P2 classrooms to create more learning through play activities. Having used the smooth transitions model of working with my infant class at Tighnabruaich I was very interested to hear how they had approached this. I have certainly gained some inspiration and hope to develop some of the ideas with our own infant classes.

I spent some time at the Smart stand getting a tutorial in the use of their boards as we have both theirs and Promethean in school. I do like using my finger to do the bizz on the Smartboard but prefer the ActivPrimary interface (so far).

I attended the TeachMeet07 event at the Science centre and after some whistlestop presentations on a wide variety of topics, experienced a very novel dining experience at Kubla Khan’s with the rest of the crowd, courtesy of Softease. I was surprised that this Mongolian diner did not have yak on the menu, but I have now tasted crocodile, which may have eaten a zebra which was also on the menu!

I also went to ‘Using interactive technologies to inspire young musicians’ presented by John Self from Promethean. John is one of those people whose enthusiasm and pleasure in what he does really comes across and I was really delighted to see his use of the PS2 and Promethean board. I have been using a little Garageband with P7 who really enjoy creating their own tunes using chimebars, glockenspiels and xylophones. I want to hook up the PS2 microphone, having used Eyetoy before with my infant class. I now want Guitarhero as well. What a blast!

After John’s session I filled in the card which would be entered in a prize draw taking place at 2:30 at the Promethean stand. Prizes included an iPod shuffle, software and a set of Activote pods. I duly crowded round at 2:30 ‘cos you had to be there to actually win one of the 12 prizes on offer.

After a card was drawn out, you had to come up to the board and reveal your prize by dragging away a square and revealing the prize below. The first winner got the iPod shuffle………….the second card …………..the guy wasn’t there………..the third card……….I knew it was mine………….I had used my new pink ink pen to fill it in (I don’t know why!)……………….Morag Macdonald come on down………. 11 squares to choose from………..a bit of hesitation…..top left……and result.!!!!! I have won the set of Activote pods….am I chuffed, or am I chuffed. So thank you very much Promethean and I assure you I will make good use of this fantastic prize. A perfect end to a fab two days.