If you’ve ever wanted to create your very own talking character from a photo or picture, then the guys at PQ DVD may have come to the rescue!
They are even offering the software for free to those that blog about it before Christmas. How’s that for a christmas present?
Today, the Glow team from LTScotland met up in Dundee as guests at the Consolarium. We spent the day finding out about the fantastic work being led by Derek Robertson of LTS encouraging the use of gaming technologies in schools around Scotland. If you haven’t already, then you must check out the huge body of work to be found on the games based learning site at LTScotland.
Derek is full of enthusiasm for using gaming technology in schools, and his enthusiasm quickly rubbed off on the Glow team. It wasn’t long before he was being heckled with challenging questions about motivation in class, issues of how classroom teachers managed the technology, and how the studies he has already produced could be extended to show results over a longer period of time.
After a ‘hands-on’ session (where I again proved my inability as a PS2 ‘Guitar Hero’!), discussion quickly turned to making links between the Consolarium, Glow and CPD Find. I think we could all see how glow groups could encourage collaboration and communication on using gaming technologies in class. I’d love to see something like the guitar hero project developed in Aberdeenshire taking place between different schools in different authorities – maybe one school doing the R&D, one the production and one the marketing of the guitars? Wouldn’t that be a great opportunity for online collaboration? Derek suggested a national Gutar Hero competition – or what about a guitar concept competition, where different schools compete to design the best guitar?
Wouldn’t it be great too if staff could find out about CPD opportunities in games based learning happening in schools near them, or even schools far away using the tools in Glow? This could all be done easily using CPD Find.
Exciting times.
Mr. W begins to discuss his great idea in the wake of the edublog awards yesterday. I couldn’t agree more! Neil proposes an award ceremony to take place at the SLF with the focus being on what our students are doing. What do you think? Head on over and give your thoughts/opinions.
What with TeachMeet and now an awards ceremony, is the SLF growing a fringe?
Photocredit: marimoon
Courtesy of RS Teacher, comes this brilliant link to the RE Teachers group on YouTube UK. Isn’t it great when a group of teachers get together and share the resources they have found useful in their teaching? Don’t forget, if YouTube is blocked in your Local Authority, there are plenty of ways to save a video and use it offline…
You’d do well to get yourself to an ALDI store this coming Sunday. For the princely sum of £6.99 you can get yourself (or a loved one) the ultimate in useless useful gadgetry – the flexible, roll up Tevion keyboard! Stuck for a novelty gift for the nerd you know this Christmas? Unless you happen to have a brand new Mac, this has got to be the coolest keyboard on sale. You can roll it up, and not have to worry about spilling anything on it. For those moments where silence is a virtue, it is even ‘noiseless’ when you type. Even better, it comes in black, white, pink or blue! What more could anyone want from Santa this Christmas – peace on Earth?
Just read this thought provoking post over at David Warlick’s site. He recently heard Alan November talking about the state of education in the USA. Combined with this post from Will Richardson, I think America is beginning to take its issues very seriously indeed.
It’s a striking analogy, and got me thinking about use of technology here in Scotland. Many (if not all) of our students are more connected out of school than they are within it. Even txt conversations by mobile phone make them more connected to each other, yet in schools (by and large) we block the use of such technologies. Many schools are beginning to question this wisdom, but it’s a considerable minority.
Glow has the built-in capacity to change how our students collaborate and network. The work done already even in the pilot phases showed how comfortable our pupils were with collaborating in an online environment. The questions we face are these – how prepared are we to let our students collaborate? What do we understand by collaboration? Pupils working with other pupils in the same room? If this is what we mean by collaboration, it’s nowhere near the understanding the technologically literate have.
picture courtesy of lithfin.
