Whole School E-Learning Strategy

I have been working closely with a group of staff to develop a whole school e-learning strategy. It is very exciting to work with a professional and motivated group that are very keen on developing Teaching and Learning through the use of ICT. We have already planned to run a series of inset sessions that will no doubt help support the whole staff and engage with students and enrich their learning.

Through working with the group we are planning to roll out a sustained programme of events with a focus on 6 technologies in each year, 2 * 1hr sessions per technology. This is a change to my previous system which was based on roliing out 12 * 1hr sessions. The main benefit being that there will always be a follow up session for staff to review their learning and adapt or develop how they have implemented the technology. The commitment of these staff is second to none and it looks likethe school will be reaping the benfits in the next academic year.

There is still a lot of work that needs to be completed including reviewing student voice, staff voice and putting the sessions on the calander. In addition, the staff involved want to share their learning journeys with each technology through a blog.

Amazing!

Collaborative Tools

Running a CPD session tonight on collaborative tools. Showing some of the following Google Doc's, Primary Pad, Linoit, Blogging and Edmodo. Hopefully staff will get a lot out of the session and will continue to use ICT within their lessons and across the VLE.

Spicynodes :

Haven't had the time to blog recently but thought that I would write about something that I am currently trying out. I have heard good things about Spicy Nodes so hope it lives up to my expectations.

Spicynodes :

Teachmeet @St John's #tmstjohns

Well, it's all done and dusted but hopefully the conversations will continue. Lots of great ideas were shared and the "buzz" of the meeting was positive. It was great to see some staff that you don't get a chance to catch up with or share ideas.

I have already had offers for presenters for the next one and now need to think about getting it planned! Today's TM was at lunch so it was a bit of a rush over 45mins and 6 presentations, ( 1 micro and 5 nano). Next time I think that if the full benfits are to be gained it will be an after school event over 2 hrs. Would the school sponsor it and some drinks???

Teachmeet @ St John's

Running a mini internal "Teachmeet" at school tomorrow during lunchtime. St John's have kindly supported the event and are providing lunch for all attending. Take up has been very good over 20 staff in total and 7 delivering presententations.

My presentation will be based around the following Linoits.

OCR Nationals 2010

Using Linoit in Education

Using Linoit in Education
My class Linoit

I am excited by this opportunity and new format and hope to incoporate it more in staff training events in the future.

I will post more info after the event.

Better Planning

As a follow up to the badly timed Blogging session I delivered another session this week to trainee teachers. It went well and hopefully planted the seed of blogging and other elearning tools so that they can trial technologies in their own practice.

There are now a numer of bloogs up and running in school and students are fully engaging with the variety of activities that teachers are using them for!

Bad planning!

Planned an elearning workshop for today. Oops, forgot it was valentines day! Turn out was less than usual but productivity was high. English, history, law and re have now got a student blog started.

Hopefully these will really take off in school and the message will spread.

Blogging is an easy way to share ideas, resources and work. Students create rather than consume and once the blog is set up there is very little work for the teacher to do. Once it is established the students should begin to question each others posts and the whole thing should organically expand.

The possibilities are endless, it taps into devices that students have on them all of the time and it should extend learning!