Welcome to our chalkface

    Chalkface

    February 2nd, 2010

    Chalkface is a new space on the Pontydysgu website.  It is an area where we are planning to collect together all those posts that deal with stuff to do with classroom practice.

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    Posts on Chalkface

    Taccle2 on track

    May 20th, 2013 by Jenny Hughes

    We are really excited about the Taccle 2 project – 5 hard copy handbooks and a website bursting with practical ideas on how to use web 2.0 apps and other e-learning tools in your classroom.

    The project has reached its half way mark and we are so far on target. The E-learning handbook for Primary Teachers has just come back from the layout artist and is in its final proof reading stage. (There is a temporary version available if you want to take a look)

    The E-learning handbook for STEM teachers is waiting for the layout artist to make it look pretty and the E-learning for Humanities is in its draft version. This will be available on the site within the next week.

    The next book, E-learning for Creative and Performing Arts has just been started – we are still at the stage of collecting ideas but they are coming in thick and fast. The final book, E-learnig for Core Skills 14-19 is at the planning stage. All books will be ready for printing by April 2014.

    Meanwhile, check out Taccle2 website It has 280 posts at the moment and our rough estimate is that there are well over a thousand ideas that can be navigated by subject, age, software, language, format and more. Even better, judging from the number of visitors who return and the number of contributions and comments, there is a growing community around the Taccle2 site which will expand rapidly once the Taccle2 training starts next month.

    Please come and join us and spread the word – tried and tested ideas for using technology in the classroom, created by teachers for teachers. No theory, no research just inspiration!

    PS you can also follow us on Twitter #taccle or on the Taccle2  Diigo group or on Scoop.it – so no excuses!!

    Posted in chalkface, Communities of Practice, CoP, e-learning 2.0, education 2.0, learning 2.0, learningtechnologies, News, online, online communities, online learning, OnlineLearning, Pedagogy, social media, Social Software, Taccle, Taccle Glance, Taccle Resources, teaching and learning, technology, web 2.0, web2 | No Comments »

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    New Report on the Re-use and Adaption of OER

    June 30th, 2012 by Graham Attwell

    The momentum behind Open Educational Resources continues to gather pace.

    The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has released a new Report: “The Re-use and Adaptation of Open Educational Resources (OER): An Exploration of Technologies Available” by Ishan Sudeera Abeywardenaof the Wawasan Open University, Malaysia.

    According to the COL website, “the objectives of this report are to (i) explore the current technology landscape with respect to both proprietary as well as Free and Open-source Software (FOSS) technologies; (ii) identify techniques, actual and in development, for re-use of OER materials; and (iii) discuss the implementation in the context of a typical ODL agency.

    This peer-reviewed report is a detailed catalogue of technologies available to teachers as well as learners for the re-use of OER material in the forms of text, HTML, audio, video and data. It also compares the technologies based on access, openness, usability and availability. The report will serve as a resource for teachers and learners for re-using OER materials.

    Posted in chalkface, news bites, Open Educational Resources | No Comments »

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    e-Portfolio support

    June 19th, 2012 by Graham Attwell

    JISC has launched three resources to help universities and colleges to implement e-portfolios effectively at scale -created from successful practice in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

    The materials explore the ways in which you can help to boost learner achievement, enhance employability and even support the development of new courses.

    JISC programme manager Lisa Gray says that a review of both the toolkit and supporting videos gives a thorough, accessible introduction to implementing e-portfolio tools.

    She said: “What shines out from the case studies is the enormous potential that e-portfolios offer, and the benefits that they deliver to students over and above what they might achieve on their own, via Facebook or some other platform.

    “Many universities, colleges and professional bodies, are now exploring the potential of e-portfolios on a wider scale, but there have been few attempts to share good practice and celebrate successes.”

    The e-portfolio implementation toolkit and five supporting video case studies, Stories of e-Portfolio Implementation, can be found  here.

    Posted in chalkface, news bites, ple, PLEs, PLN | No Comments »

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    33 more ways to use a mobile phone in the classroom

    June 19th, 2012 by Jenny Hughes

    Thought it was about time we had another of these. I just found this crowdsourced collection of tips, ideas and ways to use mobiles for learning (click here). It says in the classroom but we all know that mobiles are for using on the move and that the majority of learning happens outside of classrooms so take advantage of the good weather (unless you’re in Wales) and do something fun!

    Ange

    (PS more ideas here)

    Posted in Angela Blog, chalkface, mobile learning, Taccle, Taccle Resources | No Comments »

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    Free digital content

    February 6th, 2012 by Graham Attwell

    From a Jisc press release:

    Over 14,000 items of archived TV footage from 17 European countries are now available via the EUscreen online portal for teaching, research and general interest.

    EUscreen – the result of a collaboration between 36 partners across Europe – provides a rich insight into Europe’s television heritage with content dating from the 1920s to the present day.

    The portal includes rare footage and commentary on key events in history, including a 1962 interview with Martin Luther King about racial discrimination in the US.

    John Ellis, Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway and principal investigator on the EUscreen project, said: “This is a valuable resource for anyone interested in social history or indeed TV history, as it brings together tens of thousands of clips from across Europe. The portal is available to anyone (not only academics) and it is very easy to get absorbed and spend hours browsing all of the footage.”

    The expansive footage has also proved popular as a learning aid for foreign language students, with clips available in 14 languages.

    By the end of September 2012, there will be around 30,000 items of digital content freely available on the portal as the European providers continue to add carefully selected material.

    Explore the EUscreen footage

    Posted in chalkface, news bites | No Comments »

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    Play, emergent curricula, serendipity and opportunity

    January 21st, 2012 by Graham Attwell
    Learning and Teaching in Networked Publics
    View more presentations from Helen Keegan

    In a blog post about the BETT show in London I complained that there was little evidence about using technology for teaching and learning. And that is why I like this presentation by Helen Keegan. Whilst she looks at a whole series of web and social networking tools the whole focus is on real life use. I particularly like her advice on slide 32 – “Leave space in the course to allow space for play, emergent curricula, serendipity and opportunity.”

    Posted in chalkface, e-learning 2.0, education 2.0, Knowledge development, learning 2.0, Multimedia, Presentations, Social networking, Social Software, teaching and learning | No Comments »

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    Using Cartoons for Engagement

    November 29th, 2011 by Graham Attwell

    GoAnimate.com: Episode One – Jenny Jobseeker by elleemployability

    I’ve been working on a series of webquests on the use of the internet far careers guidance and counselling. And I stumbled on this great blog by Elle Dyson. Elle is making a a mini cartoon series following the journey of ‘Jenny Jobseeker’ as she battles through the unemployment jungle. As she says there are limitations to the free version of Go animate (the online tool she used to make the cartoon) but, she says, “it serves as (I think) a rather nifty tool for engagement – providing a little bit of advice, giving them a bit of a laugh, and most importantly engaging them in the service, encouraging them to access support from us, and in accessing local opportunities.”

    Posted in Career Guidance, careers, chalkface, G8WAY, Multimedia | No Comments »

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    Interested in games?

    November 14th, 2011 by Graham Attwell

    From Futurelab:

    Aimed at teachers and those interested in using games with an educational intent, this handbook aims to provide some useful anchoring points for educators to make sense of the area and to develop practical approaches for the use of computer games as a medium for learning.

    It is assumed by some that the models games employ lead to learning, as young people effectively learn how to play without necessarily being explicitly taught, doing vast amounts of reading or interacting with others; while others see games as boring, tedious, time-consuming, and repetitive.

    Both of these viewpoints can be true: as stated the impact of a game is dependent on the game itself, but also the player, circumstance of use, mediation of the teacher and other players. In fact, many academic researchers of young people’s uses of digital media argue, counter to the hype, that computer games have been insufficiently well researched as a medium for learning.

    In this handbook we aim to summarise not only the key theories around why they are considered to have potential, but how they have been used in the past, how they are used for learning in a family context, which attributes lead to learning, and considerations for using them with young people.

    Download the book

    Posted in chalkface, games, Pedagogy | No Comments »

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    Raindrops on roses

    November 4th, 2011 by Angela Rees

    November is Sharing Good Practice Month at the college where I lecture so I thought I’d jump on the Chalkface blog and share two of my favourite things.

    I love historypin. It’s a Google Maps mashup where you can upload pictures from the past and compare them to the current street view. You can add video and audio too. There’s heaps of potential for school projects and it’s a great tool for digital storytelling. Have a look at the Beatlemania tour for inspiration!

    Continuing with the maps theme, every maths teacher needs to know about the Maths Maps project.  Again using Google Maps this collaborative resource links maths questions to physical places.  For example, a pin in Real Madrid Football Stadium invites you to zoom in and calculate the area of the pitch. Further more, one map can cover many topics and colour coded pins allow for age or level differentiation. There’s more information on how to join in with the project on the edte.ch blog.

    Posted in Angela Blog, chalkface, teaching and learning | 1 Comment »

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    this would be funny if it wasn’t true…

    October 6th, 2011 by Jenny Hughes

    (Go see the free embed deal at http://www.andertoons.com/free-cartoons/ )

    Posted in chalkface | No Comments »

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