Assessment for Learning

As promised, I would like to share with you some of the ideas from the recent World E-learning Forum. Those on assessment for learning are taken from a presentation by Sally Betts of NIACE.

Tip

For language classes why not ask learners to bring in a photograph? You can then ask them to describe it and record their description on a voice recorder. As the photograph is something learners are familiar with it is less threatening than one provided with the tutor.

If you give this try please do let us know whether it was a valauble exercise.

Getting the information across

I've been looking at a couple of websites about effective use of Powerpoint and came across this impressive presentation which I sat and watched, beginning to end. Not only is it visually interesting, the guy has a relaxed approach which held my attention in a way that these things seldom do.




Having discovered the TED website I came across this.




What do you reckon?

And finally.....

A more representative picture of the show. Filmed using the Flip in better light conditions than the previous one.

Mimio Pro demonstration

I promised the video of the demo we watched by the Mimio specialist. It's not so good, I'm afraid, but hey, Art doesn't have to be purFeKt, does it?



But I'm not sure it's even good enough to be Art!

At the Show

Jane and I spent yesterday at the BETT show at Olympia, seeking further inspiration and ideas to ensure that adult learners in Gloucestershire continue to find their learning enhanced by tutors using technology to best advantage. Though much of the show was aimed squarely at schools and teachers working in purpose built environments (lots of interactive whiteboards and large, built-in equipment) we spotted a couple of small gadgets which we loved and which you might love too.

We thought this dinky voice recorder to be a great little tool for recording RARPA evidence across the whole curriculum as well as the more obvious language and literacy applications. Not only does it record, but that's a little speaker on the front so you can listen back as well. OK, not perhaps strong enough to play to a whole class but certainly loud enough for a group or for a single learner to listen to without disturbing everyone else. It connects to a computer and would download sound clips too.

The other really nifty gadget which we think you'll all want (because Jane and I want one now!) is this little projector. Personally, I think the "Pocket Cinema" is a bit misleading, for we're not really talking multiplex dimensions here - but for a group of eight or ten, working in a community setting it would be just great. It fixes to a small tripod or one of our gorilla pods and would show onto a darkened wall (this self-appointed "handsome assistant" is holding a black box screen to demonstrate it to best advantage, something that a resourceful tutor could rig up with no problem, I'm sure!)

As we left the show, Jane and I shared one or two thoughts, mainly how well Gloucestershire AdEd is doing in the e-learning stakes. You know, our tutors are really ahead of the game in making imaginative and inspirational use of technology in their teaching and the fact that so many share their experience and knowledge here is remarkable.

Coming up soon: Jane and I used the Flip camera to record a presentation by a Mimeo developer having introduced ourselves as Mimeo-phobics. First I have do do a bit of learning myself however....getting video from Flip to Blog. Watch this space.

World e-learning conference

I am at Day 1 of this world conference in Westminster. Gill will be very disappointed with me as I have not brought a camera to record the amazing sites in this location. The opening talk brought home the challenges facing our education system as we aim to equip it for the challenges of the 21st century and highlighted the rapid progress made by some countries in improving their education systems, for example China and Korea.

The first workshop I attended announced new developments in professional development with a particular focus on e-learning. This eCPD programme launches in February and will work to enable organisations to provide staff training which embraces the benefits which using technology in the classroom can bring. Gill and I will be presenting a workshop at the launch event and I will be training as a Professional Development Advisor. I am about to attend a second session highlights the benefits to organisations when using technology in teaching. When I get back I will provide links to the various presentations which are relevant to our work. There are people here who are involved in education all over the world and I have just had a brief chat with the Iraqi Minister for Education. I will keep you posted as the event progresses.

Getting photographs on to a computer

I've been asked for some support on getting photographs from a camera onto a computer and thought that it might be a useful thing to share here. It's easy to assume that everyone knows what to do already, but with lots of new tutors joining the dream teams and getting their hands on one of our great digital cameras this term, I make no apologies for going back to basics!





I'm going to use one of the AdEd Sony cameras and my own PC at home. Your set up may be slightly different but many features will be the same.



I'm going to recommend you use free photo storage and basic editing software called Picasa. Because it's a Google product (like Blogger) it enables you to upload photographs easily to this or any other blog and short videos to You Tube as well. There are other software suites which do the same thing - you might have loaded one which came with your computer - but I'm making no apologies for using my favourite!






Download Picasa free from the internet... http://picasa.google.com/ If you're using an AdEd laptop, you might well find that it's already there. The latest version is V.3 and it's worth making sure that this is the one you use - it has all kinds of nifty tools inbuilt.

Decide how you want to get your photos into your computer....you can either use a wire like this (which came with the camera)

Ignore the yellow and black round plugs for now and just plug the USB into the computer and the other, rectangular plug into the slot on the bottom of the camera.

If you're not sure about USB plugs, have a look here where there are photographs of a USB plug and where it fits into a laptop.

You might prefer to download your photographs straight from the memory card which can be found next to the battery in your camera. All the AdEd cameras should have a memory card fitted - please don't lose it!




On occasion you might decide to take the card out and put the card into your computer somewhere to upload your photographs, though you might need some kind of adapter for it to fit. Even though I have a Sony computer which has a memory card slot which fits my camera card perfectly, I find it quicker to use the wire method. I keep the cable permanently attached in a USB port and just plug my camera in. As soon as I connect it, a window comes up on the screen asking what I want to do - I make the choice to open Picasa and import the pictures.





If I take out the memory stick and slot it in my computer, the same screen comes up and offers the same choices.

I import the photographs into Picasa and save them in a folder where I can find them again! Picasa stores them in date order anyway and it's easy to move them around once they're in, so I don't worry too much if I make a mistake at this stage.



Picasa also offers a choice whether you want to delete the photos from your camera/memory card at this stage or leave them where they are. When I'm at home, I wipe the card/memory every time, but when we're on holiday I leave them there until we get home. Then, when I get to my home PC I can upload the lot in one go onto my home computer and wipe the card.

And that's it. The photographs are now safely stored on my computer and I can use them how I wish. I can use the basic editing in Picasa to crop them, adjust lighting and colour and to make some simple changes - change them to black and white, for example. If I want to share the photographs or move them to another computer, I can copy and save them to a USB memory stick.

Don't know how to do that? Still stuck? Your AdEd friends are here to help you. Please don't hesitate to contact one of us and we'll do our best to get you up and running!

Bingo!

Found it!

The QIA Excellence Gateway is a brilliant place to begin a search for such things. I found the Bingo game I was looking for there and might well spend another hour to so exploring other resources there too. After all, you never know where these things might come in useful!

Resources

Just had a call requesting a link to an online resource seen at a recent event and did a google to find it. whilst there, I found these resources for ESL teachers which might be of interest.

Don't forget to share any useful sites you find with us, will you?

Still looking for that bingo site, by the way. Anyone have a link to it please?