Educaplay: Flash and HTML 5 Interactivity creation.

Have you tried Educaplay?  This is a fantastic site where you can create interactive content for use on  your VLE.Blogs and Web Sites for free, simply register, create and share..

Below is an example of what they call an interactive map.  I will be beginning work with Scratch this term with my phase three students  I want them to become familiar with the Interface and where to find unfamiliar items.  This map based quiz will hopefully help consilidate their understanding of where to find things in the program.




We will also need to become familiar with keywords and vocabulary.  So how about a Wordsearch as a starter, before moving on to define and use these terms in learning diaries and such.



Other great tasks available include "word jumbles," "sentence jumbles," "matching" and "crossword" interactivities.

These can be saved in your account space and then embed codes generated for the tasks copied and pasted into html view in you pages or tasks that can be shared with students either in the VLE or through provision of shared shortcuts to specific pages online you have created.

Oh and did I mention that the site is free!

Enjoy..... :o)

Create Your Own embeddable Games and Interactivities Support and Consolidate Learning

Well half an hour has passed and I have made a start on my first 100 and odd games to use in the DTP Unit next term.  Well,  I haven't personally made a ton of games but I have finally logged into my  Zondle account for a play, and yes in less than 30 minutes input a few trial questions, before the site using my quiz created a selection of games that I can embed into or link to from my VLE.

These games are based on use of Microsoft Publisher, the tool we will be using but could be edited to make them more generic, or developed around any topic or theme I am working on from across the subject base of the curriculum.  I do need to give some more thought to the questions I have created as they were quite rushed, but I am able because I own the underlying quiz to go back and edit these.  Once I am happy with the quiz I am able to share my games with others in the Zondle Community too, so if you register and log in, there are a growing number of games already in existence.

The First Game here Zondles R Us presents my topic quesions in a straight forward quiz format.



... while this game Fish Nosh, challenges the students to engage with the quiz while being rewarded with the opportunity to earn extra points within a platform game type environment.



I still need to work on my quiz, and will probably add a few more questions to challenge my players as my planning progresses allowing more opportunities for game play.  What is great however is the possibility down the road to use these activities alongside other embeddables as plenary and homework follow ups to help develop and consolidate of vocabulary, key concepts and ideas from within the units of work my students engage with.

Additionally, two other tools I have used alot are jigsaw puzzles created at Jigsaw Planet and Wordsearches made at The Ultimate Wordsearch Maker.  The students have not only enjoyed using the embedables I have created at these sites, but also creating their own topic based versions, which we have shared by email, and through shared spaces within the VLE.  Here are two examples I created and also on a DTP theme.

Jigsaw:  Click to open jigsaw in same window.
48 Publisher Doc

Wordsearch:  Click on the first and last letter in each word you find.

Make Your Own Word Search

I am looking forward to sharing Zondle with colleagues at school and exploring the how or wheher we can use it aongside I Am Learning a games based learning platform we have subscribed to use next year to support homework. I have already shared wordsearch maker and jigsaw planet with a number of colleagues who have enjoyed using these to create material for use with their students.

Note To Self
Wonder if Zondle could be used with students to help support and develop validation processes during research and Independent Enquiry.  Having worked with exemplar Zondles, students could be challenged individually or in pairs to research and create quizes around particular topics or themes using the multiple choice, true false or free text formats.  They would need to  validate and check the accuracy of their answers before these could be used.. Something to ponder... A pebble in the pond. 

Feedback and review: A chance encounter between WALT, WILF and Google?

Recently with my phase 3 groups I have begun thinking about the self and peer review process as an area for development in my classroom practice.  I know this will be a key process if  students are to take ownership of their learning in ICT. I am also accutely aware of the need to monitor and review this, to collate evidence of oucome and to scaffold and support students as we develop this aspect of classroom work. One of our ongoing plenary activities among classroom discussion has involved using a prepared evaluation grid, that requires students with reference to session WALTs and WILFS  to comment on and set next steps based on learning during the session.  In reviewing these however I have frequently found students commenting on things that were not the "focus" of the session, but that were incidental to and emerged or developed out of the tasks as we worked.  These comments often refered to practical key skills, as opposed to the process skills that often surround session tasks.  Unpicking my WALTS and WILFS alongside these reviews I began to see the need to explicitly identify and review these skills, some of which were assumed and incidental  within the WALT for each session.  This is where my use of Google Forms has begun to take shape.

I have begun to explore and use Group Google Spreadsheets relating to units of work we are involved in and which collate response to I can statements around the activities we are developing.  From these I have also generated multiple choice forms, using radio buttons and a red, amber, green system against which students can begin to evaluate their own  performance.  At the top of the form is a text box where the student enters their name, and at the bottom a further 2 text fields allowing the student to free enter comments on what they feel they have enjoyed or learned that has not been included in the "quiz" and a space to enter a target.  To ensure completion before submission each field has also been marked as a "required field."  Once set up a hyperlink to the Google Form is then added to relevant pages in Class Learning Paths on the VLE.  Students are encouraged to complete the form and then submit it. Submision results, including free text  responses, are automatically added to relevant cells in the Google spreadsheet associated with it. In addition a time and date stamp are provided to show when the form was completed.

The Google Spreadsheet attached to each form has also been conditionally formatted, so that as data arrives from the students the spreadsheet shows me at a glance through colour coding what the student responses have been.  Green colours a cell green, Amber colours a cell amber and so on.  At a glance I can also pick out patterns or areas to develop and revisit,  eg red either still needs to be taught explicitly or is poorly understood, and Amber needs to be revisited to secure, hopefully green can be assumed and consolidated.  Students text responses are sent to the relevant cell in the spreadsheet to for review later. The Spreadsheet file can then either be downloaded and saved in an appropriate file format for editing locally, or can be printed directly from Google for inclusion in the class evience file.

This obviously cannot stand alone, however as a possible ARR tool and part of my evolving APP and AfL process this curently seems potentially powerful to me

• Allowing students at the start of a unit to see where we are going and what we need to learn next term and before the unit begins
• Carried out as a survey before a unit of work commencesperhaps it may be useful in establishing a common starting point for skills based work with the students in particular groups, and supporting differentiation/extension and progression
• Carried out at the mid point working in pairs or with learning buddies alongside works in progress and revisiting at the end of a unit may also allow plotting of progression, support review of ongoing learning targets by the students, and the possibility of using these tools to support teacher student learning conversations. 

 I would be really interested to hear any suggestions or thoughts from colleagues, in both Key Stage 2 and 3 around my reflections and thoughts here.  Thanks in anticpation.

Honeycomb 6: Collecting Ideas For Empathetic Writing

The students had a fantastic time today using our Worry Web to engage with character problems presented from the text we have been sharing this week. I was beginning to worry myself that the work done over last weekend to set up the static site model would flop disasteroulsy if I couldn't get the technology to work for me rather than against as seemed to be the case yesterday.

The problems/dilemas the children were asked to consider were those of three children

William who thinks he is useless at everything...

Greg, who says "I like this girl. I like her very much. I want to be her friend. I want to be her BOYfriend. I've gone all red and shuddery and yucky just typing it! I hate all this lovey-dovey stuff. It really sucks. I don't want to feel like this. I generally HATE girls."

and Claire who says "I have this nightmare. Its really scary. I don't know what to do. I dream it every single night. Does anyone else have nightmares or am I the only one?"

The three problems stirred up active discussions, and it was interesting to see this evening which of worries the children had chosen to respond to in most detail, and how responses had divided along gender lines.

Greg got some really interesting responses from the girls, who interestingly set about replying by changing the perspective for him by reviewing the problem and presenting a way of dealing with what he wanted to do from their point of view. Several of the responses included a "Well as I am a girl," viewpoint, while sharing with him their wisdom and outlining some of the things they thought he might do.

Claire seemed to gain most responses from the boys, who were quick to point out she was not alone, they too had nightmares or bad dreams, they tended to explain the reasons they thought they had "bad dreams" and made practical suggestions about how they had overcome these. These included sitting down and trying to relax before bedtime, emptying their minds and thinking happy thoughts. Perhaps the problem stemmed from the things she was watching on TV. One of the students explaining how he asked his mum to help him decide if the things he wanted to watch might be too scary if close to bed time. There were also some interesting suggestions about what to eat and drink and ideas about how to make yourself comfortable before trying to go to get off to sleep, perhaps taking a waterbottle and teddy to bed, putting luminous stars on the ceiling and so on.

It has been really interesting reading the responses to see how the nature of the space seemed to affect the boys partiucularly in terms of the things they said. The sympathetic and open way they said they too had nightmares, and the suggestion of a teddy bear is something some of the "cooler" guys would probably not have suggested so matter of factly. There was none of the switch to "she could" we would have gained in discussion, but more of the "why don't you.?" or "you could try.." type of response, that is exactly what Iwant to develop in our writing outcome.
I am really pleased about how the task and environment engaged the students empathetically with the talk for writing process. It also began the initial drafting of models we will draw on for our guided write tomorrow.

During our writing task I want to build on today's using the comments collected as scaffolds to help us write Agony Aunt type responses to the characters. When we planned this process I was thinking how interesting it would be for the children to work with the responses we collected to write a Dear Claire, William or Greg Letter. I am now wondering about having the children create these collaboratively using a word processor and offering two publishing outcomes. One to be printed for display, the other publishing to their Blog spaces, in order to extend the conversation and commenting process as part of an AfL and review activity. Encouraging review of each other's letters not only in terms of the content or how they feel about the advice. But also in terms of our ongoing writing targets while extending our ongoing work around reading for meaning.

Previous Posts

• Honeycomb 4: Thinking Through an Online Role Play Project
• Honeycomb 5: Beginning our Role Play Task

Tracking a Learning Story: Using Powerpoint and Slideshare as Digital Floor Books

Perhaps I should now entitle this post "Tricked into a learning story." I was amazed today when I visited my Slideshare space to find one of the Powerpoint files I uploaded a while back had been viewed 100504 times.

I don't usually quote my site stats, this space for me is not about that, it is a place where I reflect and share the work I do with my students and ideas that inspire me as a result. However I recieved an email from slideshare a site I trusted as a member and set off to see what it was all about. I was really excited as you may imagine by what I saw when I visited my slidespace having not visited for a while. I didn't expect a service like this to play about with my stats, and certainly not in a public facing space. I put together the original post and published a link on twitter to celebrate. As it turns out I have been well and truly had by what has turned out to be their april fool. Thanks to members of my Twitter network, and especially NeilAdam, I found out about this, and am feeling suitably foolish as a result.... Well done slideshare!

Now feeling marginally calmer about it I have decided I should take the "prank" as a dose of medicine to remind myself of all the esafety lessons I have taught my students. Now however it seems I have to add to these sessions, that even the sites you think you can trust may not be what they say they are. I can take a joke as well as the next, but am seriously unhappy about how this has turned out, and with the availabilty of my own hosting space am now intending to move my files as a result.

Originally the show in question was created as a "digital floorbook" as part of an MSc Assignment on the potential of ICT in assessment for learning. It follows through and tracks a teaching sequence, using IWB notes and photographs as evidence, in a planned process to move my students toward the formal algorithms for addition and subtraction, drawing on and evaluating the range of mental methods and informal jottings they were using at the time.

Using mental methods to construct a standard written method for addition and subtraction

View more presentations from twowhizzy.

This "floor book" has been shared a number of times, and featured in a previous post. It is now buried away but so this post does not become an entirely wasted space I am embedding it again in the hope that you may find it useful.

Thanks to everyone who really has viewed or downloaded the show, however many of you there are. Maybe Slideshare will be able to give me a more accurate view on this soon!