Renfrewshire ICT Showcase: Further reflection

I said already how much I enjoyed the recent ICT event in Renfrewshire. One of the things I enjoyed was doing the presentation with Ewan. I think this is the third time we've done a joint thing like this. In theory, I have done co-operative teaching before but often in practice, when I've done it before, one person was the teacher and the other person was along for the ride. However with Ewan, it felt like genuine co-operation. We worked out what we wanted to do together. We both knew each others strengths. We divided up the things we were going to talk about and we delivered it together.

Ewan creates a podcast,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

On my own I tend to ramble and repeat myself. When I start talking I will often repeat myself and run off down sidetracks. I know that I repeat myself and ramble on and on but don't seem to be able to help myself. However, working together, Ewan kept me more or less on track. :-) I like Ewan's focus. I like the way he frames things and puts them in a context - like the comparison of the number of people that can see children's work he did at the start of the presentation. He's a clever bloke.

What did I learn from the event? I think I knew this already, but as I prepared for the night, and as we delivered it, the links between new web technologies and A Curriculum for Excellence (ACfE) became ever more clear. I said on the evening that the technologies we were showing were not additions that would take more of our precious time but they allowed us to do stuff we were doing already more effectively. I think I'd go further than that though - I don't think we can deliver on ACfE without using the kind of new technologies we were demonstrating.

What do you think?

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Stupidity and providence

Tonight, the car was almost out of fuel.It is still relatively new to us (this is only about the fifth time I've had to re-fuel). It is the first diesel car I have owned. (By now I expect some of you have guessed where this story is heading.)

There I was, filling her up, when I saw a private hire taxi draw alongside me. I noticed that the driver used the unleaded nozzle and I thought that it was unusual for a taxi not to use diesel. Then I looked down at what I was doing. Yes, you guessed it, I had just pumped 20 litres of unleaded petrol into my diesel powered car!

There was another taxi in the petrol station, a proper taxi cab, so I went over to ask the driver's advice. "Don't, under any circumstances, turn the engine on!" he said, "Phone the AA or the RAC and ask them what to do."

Knight in shining... jacket!,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

I'm not in the AA but my father is, so I phoned him, to ask him to phone them, to ask for advice. While I was on the phone, the taxi driver drove back in and told me that there was an AA van just outside and that he'd asked him to come in and see what he could do. Sure enough, seconds later the AA man turned up. He asked if the car was still under warranty? It is new to us, so I wasn't sure exactly how old it was but the handbook etc. was still in the glove compartment. Turns out that it was first registered on 24 February 2006 - within the year...just! :-) So, the AA man phoned Ford Assist and they told him to tow us to a garage. He should have taken us to the nearest Ford dealership but instead he took us to the Ford garage about ten minutes walk from our house. Brilliant!

When we got there, the garage was closed, so I have yet to find out the cost of my error. However at least I realised what I had done before turning on the engine and it was fantastic that such helpful taxi and AA men were so close by.

Stupidity and providence! It's hard to say which one was present in greatest measure.

The disasters didn't end there either. The garage is just round the corner from a Macdonald's. It was now quite late, so it was decided that a treat should be purchased and a taxi ordered so that it would still be hot when I I got home. About half an hour after I got home, I realised that I'd lost my wallet! Macdonald's and the taxi firm were both phoned... more in hope than in expectation. However, twenty minutes later, the taxi man turned up at the door with my wallet which he'd found under the seat. Despite my best efforts, he point blank refused to take a reward.

Oh... and Colin slipped his lead and ran off while on his walk tonight. He disappeared completely from sight but thankfully came back after what seemed like ages but was probably less than two minutes!

Hopefully I am now at the end of the day without further disaster.

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Putting the C into Renfrewshire (Renfrewschire?)

Well that was fun. :-) Ewan and I were invited by Gordon to speak to teachers, councillors, authority people and some parents about educational uses of new web tools. We looked at photo sharing and podcasting as well as blogs and wikis.

John Rooney,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

We did it more or less Powerpoint free - concentrating on showing and talking about specific examples. It seemed to go well. Gordon has already made four posts on the evening (here, here, here and here) and Ewan beat me to it as well with a post from the train on his way home. I've posted some pictures, Gordon has posted some better pictures and I suspect Ewan's photos will soon follow. The event was recorded and filmed so more stuff from the event will probably find its way online soon. {Update: As predicted, Ewan has published some photos, Putting the 'C' in ICT (Set), and has made available the podcast we created on the night. Enjoy!} I might even manage a bit of reflection myself. :-)

On an ancient history note, we were introduced by John Rooney, Renfrewshire Council's Director of Education and Leisure Services. I know John because he was my boss in the TVEI project where I worked before I went to Jordanhill. It was good to see him again and I'm sorry we didn't get a better chance for a chat.

Update 2: Audio of the second half of the presentation is now available.

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Photo A Day for Schools

11/365: Sage on the stage...,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

I've not really been that busy but somehow haven't made the time to write a blog post. I've been trying to keep up with the photo a day thing though and I'm pleased to say that Barbara's Photo-A-Day for Schools group seems to be working. Go have a look and leave some encouraging comments for the pupils.

The group is public (which should mean you can see the pictures) but you have to be invited by Barbara to join. It's probably not too late to join in. Have a look at my earlier post, "EduFlickr: A photo a day...", for details on how to get involved.

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Five things you may not know about me

This meme was doing the rounds during the Christmas holidays. I was tagged at least four times (by Chris, John, Steve and Theo - if I've missed anyone, please let me know) but I fell off the blog wagon during the holidays and I've been feeling guilty about not responding since I climbed back on in January.

I found this a difficult task to complete. I suspect that when you talk for a living, you end up telling people most things about yourself that you are willing to tell. :-) However, hopefully most of the things here are new to most of my readers.

1. My first memory is of going to get a dog when I was about three and a half. I distinctly remember the puppy licking my neck and my dad saying, "He knows his new owner!" However, when I recounted this story at a family do recently, nobody else remembered it. Maybe I just made it up. The dog's name was Dougal, a mongrel, and he was the stupidest dog I have ever known. I'm talking unbelievably, utterly dim.
   
   
2. When I was a toddler (not sure about my age) I fell downstairs. The fall didn't hurt, but when I was being checked over because of the fall, they found something else that required an operation to sort. I therefore have a small scar that I was vaguely proud of while growing up even though I never showed it to anyone.
   
   
3. My wife is the only person who can tickle me.
   
   
4. In the words of Fran from Black Books, "I must be musical. I've got hundreds of CDs!" And yet, all the evidence appears to be the contrary. So far I have failed to learn to play the bugle, the trumpet (well I was allowed to sit with the second trumpets in the school brass band but I think that's because they were too embarrassed to put me outside the hall), the side drum (for the school pipe band), the guitar and the harmonica. I want to fail to learn the guitar again but wasn't able to convince my family to buy me a guitar and lessons for my Christmas and/or birthday.
   
   
5. I like to sleep with my nose facing the open end of the pillowslip. {See? I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel now.}

Well, I was asked and (eventually) I delivered. I'm not sure that it really tells you anything new about me but it's all you're going to get.

It is so long since this meme was circulating that I am too embarrassed to tag anyone else. However, if you read this, and want to have a go, be my guest. Just leave a comment to let me that know you've responded. :-)

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EduFlickr: A photo a day...

...keeps the inspector away?

10/365: The fryPod,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

In my last EduFlickr post, EduFlickr: A good year for the poses..., I talked about my recent addiction to taking a photo every day for a year and I suggested that this might make an interesting project for schools. Well Barbara has taken up the challenge (see A Flickr Activity/Challenge- Are you in?) and is well on the way to setting up an international photo a day project for schools.

She hopes to start on the 5 February, but if you read this entry after that date, I expect she'll be happy to welcome latecomers too. Have a look at the wiki she set up (Planning for a Photo a Day), make a contribution and join in. The more, the merrier. :-)

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EduFlickr: A good year for the poses...

{Sorry about the weak attempt at a pun in this post's title!}

I noticed that a couple of my blogging chums (Gordon and Ruby to be precise) were attempting to document the year by taking a different picture every day. (Have a look at Gordon's and Ruby's photo sets to see what they are doing.) I thought it looked interesting and decided to have a go - so, Johnny come lately, I started my set on the 19th of January 2007. I have not been going a week, but already I'm surprised at just how addictive it is.

Not only is it interesting (so far at least) trying to come up with an idea for a picture but it is strangely fascinating looking at what other people post. There are a number of Flickr groups you can join to share your photos but the two I've been watching are Project 365! and Project 365. (No, I'm not sure either what distinguishes one from the other either... so I've been posting to both.)

3/365 Colin waits for his breakfast,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

Someone in one of the groups (Project 365) had the idea of setting a weekly challenge and that made it even more fun. Here for example is my entry for the week two challenge: breakfast!

I began to wonder if this would be a good exercise for schools - a photo for every day of the school year. Would that be an interesting record of the school's life? Perhaps different classes/groups in the school could each take a picture to compare the experiences of different pupils. Or even better, two or more schools could share their photos and set each other challenges.

Does anyone know of schools that are doing this already? Do any other educators think it's a good idea? What sort of safe photography guidelines would the children need?

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