ICT – Page 30 – John McLear

Would a “kinnected” classroom damage the OLPC goal

Posted on January 25, 2011January 25, 2011 by primaryt

The Microsoft Kinect device has various practical uses in the classroom. I have blogged about it a few times but some thinking today has made me question if the focus we should have in a classroom is towards many to one or if we should be putting more focus and investment into OLPC.

I was thinking if you were given a choice to control the teachers white board would you rather do it with a device in front of you or would you rather do it with some sort of augmented control on your desk/in the air?

One to many or many to one?

I think that personalized learning dictates each child should have their own device but that only really currently makes sense if the kids have learned fine motor skills to control the devices.

Story telling etc. can receive additional immersion with real time physical space feedback. That is where the Kinect comes into it’s own IMHO.. Before any Apple fan girls start moaning that I’m jumping on the MS bandwagon I think you should remember that I’m talking about the Kinect like it is the only space aware tool available because IT IS. The depth perception market isn’t an iPod style market where Apple out-market Sony even though there product is inferior. If there were other options I would be considering them.

Problems with space

The huge problem is that Kinect requires a huge amount of physical space in the room for the user. Sure it can handle 2 or 3 people but it would struggle to differentiate between different users(pupils) in a reception/nursery class.

So where does a Kinect style control fit in?

Are classrooms too small? Various Educational Technology Leaders are currently experimenting with it’s place in the classroom. Consolarium up in Scotland powered by the mighty Derek Robertson are doing some fantastic things and I’m looking forward to their feedback.

Is the Kinect unable to differentiate between enough users? I think this is more likely the case. So if it could that would be awesome..

Is 1 kinect per child an unrealistic expecation?

Of course it is, initially.. But in the future when Kinect type technology is included with OLPC why not consider the entire desk space virtual space? How about multiple kinects in a classroom (one in each corner) being able to compute 3d space. With this type of connectivity the kinect could figure out which desk a pupil is at and turn that desk into a control mechanism to either a) collaborate with the teacher on the IWB or to collaborate with other pupils…

What is the likely first step for Kinect outside of the XBOX world?

I have given the PT Installs team a budget to develop a new product that is useful for EYFS as we think that is the initial location where the Kinect plugged into a PC will be most fruitful. We want to move away from the console lock ins for various obvious reasons. I can’t say for obvious political reasons what our first project will be but expect to see something in and around the 2013/14 period.

I would expect the initial cost to be around the £500 mark which is roughly the cost of 2 devices per child and should (in theory) be able to leverage a large amount of content already available on the market.

So will a “kinnected” classroom damage the OLPC goal?

In theory it should aid it by giving kids a more natural way of interacting and becoming confident with using technology.

Comedy in Primary Learning

Posted on January 24, 2011September 21, 2011 by John McLear

Russell Howard is funny right? At least I think so.. I also think that Billy Connolly is funny but is his “strong” use of English appropriate for Primary age kids? Probably not.. This has posed a new problem for our Safe Search filter..

Sure we can check meta content such as comments and categories for profanities but most video content doesn’t have subtitles completed yet and let’s face it no engine Google can write will ever be able to detect curse words delivered by the Glaswegian king of comedy..

So what are my options?

I can block comedy.. Here are the current search results on Primary School TV For Billy Connoly. Kudos to Paul Scott for pointing this out. I’m tempted to email Billy to see what he thinks. Would he deem his stand-up appropriate for 5-12 year olds? I doubt it.

Or I can block stand-up.. Blocking either of these makes me feel a little dead inside.. I mean, as a kid.. I LOVED comedy & stand up.. Yep it was a bit offensive at times but non of it made me a lesser person.. So here is my compromise.. If a kid wants to get to video content containing stand up they can still search for it using Safe Google Search and find it through there but I am removing the video content from Primary School TV…

To summarize.

Stand-up is being removed from Primary School TV. Sorry, I know this sucks.. I will review it in a few months to see if any useful edu content has been filtered….

Note: TED talks for example are not classified as stand-up.

10 useful free services for UK Primary School ICT Co-ordinators (mclear.co.uk)
Primary School TV – Hello world (mclear.co.uk)
Changing Youtube to get it unblocked in the Primary Classroom (mclear.co.uk)
Primary School TV show RSS feed (mclear.co.uk)

10 useful free services for UK Primary School ICT Co-ordinators

Posted on January 23, 2011January 23, 2011 by primaryt

In 2010 I worked on a bucket load of free projects that should be useful for ICT leaders in Primary Schools. Here they are..

1. Important Dates – A simple way to find out any important events coming up in the UK.

2. Satpin – Satpin is a simple way to share links with KS1 children. That is all. No fuss, no hype.

3. Primary School TV – The easy way to find and watch TV / video clips in your classroom. Primary School TV has over 1 million videos specifically filtered from youtube, bbc iplayer, bbc learningzone, howthingsworks and more!

4. ICT Freebies Mailing list – Join 4000+ other ICT co-ordinators and get your weekly free ICT service here!

5. Primary Games Arena – The easiest way to find a suitable Game to support your pupils learning.

6. Primary School Blog Feed – Looking for inspiration for how to get started blogging? Just steal/borrow ideas from other schools. Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone 🙂 If you want to get started blogging you might want to check out PrimaryBlogger

7. My School Holidays – Looking for your school holiday dates and want an easy way to share them?

8. Searchypants – Looking for a way to increase your e-Safety whilst promoting the image of your school and easily sharing links to websites?

9. Safe Search – Safe Search engine for Primary school relevant Video, Games, Websites and Images used by 8000 schools worldwide.

10. Classdroid – The easiest way to record pupil assessment, this app is for Android devices and is currently in its infancy.

11. ICT Leaders blogs. Okay so I went over 10. Whoops. Ever wondered what other Primary School ICT leaders are up to? This is a collection of all of the known ICT leaders blogs.

12. Yipes.. I forgot another great one.. This list of great free web2 alternatives for primary schools should help you find a web based free alternative to applications such as Microsoft Word and other germs.

That’s all folks.. Enjoy!

Troubleshooting the Etherpad theme framework

Posted on January 22, 2011January 22, 2011 by primaryt

I managed to get the theme framework working sort of.. To fix it I had to remove caching of CSS…

I replaced the function cssIncludes with this:

function cssIncludes() {
  if (!isProduction()) {
    var key = faststatic.getCompressedFilesKey('css', '/static/css', _hd().cssIncludes.asArray());
    return '<link href="/static/compressed/'+key+'" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />';
  } else {

  if (request.params._theme == undefined)
        {
    var ts = +(new Date);
    var r = [];
    _hd().cssIncludes.asArray().forEach(function(relpath) {
      r.push('<link href="/static/css/'+relpath+'?'+ts+'" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />');
    });
    return r.join('\n');
        }
else
        {
        var ts = +(new Date);
    var r = [];
    _hd().cssIncludes.asArray().forEach(function(relpath) {
    r.push('<link href="/static/css/nano/pad2_ejs.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />');
    });
    return r.join('\n');
        }
  }
}

This isn’t a perfect fix as it a) breaks css caching and b) breaks the nano theme.. But for now it works..

What style of illustrations do Primary School kids like?

Posted on January 19, 2011 by primaryt

We all know what a children’s illustration looks like right? Sort of in-between Dr Seuss and the Gruffalo, maybe with a bit of Spot thrown in. What I want to know is why in all of the test groups I have done over the last few weeks the most vector/cartoon style stuff is more popular with kids (both boys and girls) from the ages of 8 to the ages of 12?

Explain yourself

Spot is a good example of an illustrator moving their illustrations towards what we have found is a “preferred style of art” amongst Primary School age children.

What has changed?

The objects have become simplified and the “stroke” effect has been used with a greater thickness.

I can only assume that cartoon channels such as Nickelodeon & The Cartoon network have changed the style of art that the children I spoke to enjoyed. I know this is all very speculative and I am making some big assumptions but the evidence I have found whilst trying to find the correct illustrator for Safe Search has shown me that kids prefer vector based art as opposed to hand drawn objects..

How does this even matter?

Well it means that in the future we will try to keep our art more vector based, we will hire graphic designers/artists instead of illustrators. There is a place for illustration and I’m sure if they are done right they can look great however I can be confident in saying that Primary Technology will be sticking to the style we have used in the past as it seems to be a winning formula(despite the fact I tried to break it). Please don’t take this post as factual, it is not scientific. It is my opinion based on my experiences of a small(handful) of children in only a few schools.

Hiring Illustrators (mclear.co.uk)