Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom:

Make your own school podcasts

 

Matt Lovegrove from Sonning Common Primary School has created a useful and straightforward guide on how to use Audacity to podcast. Matt who runs his own radio show at the school has done a great job in demystifying the process of recording an audio file, exporting it as an mp3 file and posting it on the web. Why not check out his guide and have a go yourself. I'm sure you'll appreciate Matt's sound advice.

Teachers TV comes to Nodehill

 

Teachers TV are currently filming a new series designed to encourage colleagues to develop their use of technology in the classroom and improve their ICT skills. The five episodes to be broadcast in September will showcase good practice in the areas of social networking, video, PowerPoint, gaming, datahandling and mobile technology. They will all follow the same formula by featuring a keen volunteer wishing to update their knowledge by observing a leading practitioner and then transferring what they have learnt to their own context and seeing what difference it makes.

To find suitable candidates to play both roles, Gemma Gibbs from production company Illumina Digital used the TES staffroom forums to ask teachers to put their names forward if they were interested in taking part. This is what I did and was delighted to have had my offer accepted!

So on Tuesday, Gemma, her boss Morgan and volunteer Lise Bosher, a primary school teacher from Oxfordshire came to Nodehill along with a film crew to film me using PowerPoint for whole class teaching to introduce vocabulary and play games such as blockbusters and noughts and crosses using custom animations, triggers and drag and drop. The day went very well and the experience was highly memorable, if exhausting. The pupils loved being filmed and are now very excited about the prospect of appearing on TV in the autumn term.

As I will be soon leaving my current post, the programme to be called Presentations will be a kind of swansong, I guess as well a celebration of Nodehill and everyone that works at the school. Thank you to all those who made the filming possible last week and like you I look forward to seeing the final programme when it is unveiled after the summer holidays. One to watch for sure.

7JD can animate!

At Nodehill during SATs week in May, non Yr 6 classes always go form-based and so have the opportunity to take part in creative projects they wouldn't normally have the time to complete in a typical week. This year, I wanted my Year 7 form to produce a short film revising a topic we had studied in French. The idea was for them to express their creativity, work collaboratively in small groups and see what they could come up with.

Many chose to make one stop animations using a digital camera and Movie Maker. Others experimented with MS Paint and Macromedia Flash and a couple of groups shot short video clips with puppets.

I used Format Factory to convert the wmv files the pupils had rendered in Movie Maker to FLV so they would play in the PodBean embeddable player. Hope you like the finished films.

Have a listen too to the pupils talking about their filmmaking experiences and how much they enjoyed the project.

Download one_stop_interviews.mp3

Nodehill welcomes its new leader of French

Today was induction day at Nodehill and Mr Manchematin our new leader of French met 7JM, his new form for the first time. Mr Manchematin who is currently French coordinator at St Peter's CE Middle School in Windsor will be officially joining the school in September 2009 and replacing me as I take on my new role as Language Teaching Advisor at CILT.

To help 7JM settle in and get to know each other in their new class, I suggested that we showed them how to make a podcast so they could talk about their hopes and fears for next year and publish the results to a worldwide audience. I was delighted to see that they relished the opportunity and you can hear what they came up with by clicking on the link below.

Download 7JM_Induction_Podcast.mp3

Mr Manchematin told me he also enjoyed learning how to podcast and how he was keen to upgrade his own ICT skills in the future. I will certainly be staying in touch and trying to help as much as is needed ;)

While I was editing the recording in Audacity, the pupils wrote down their thoughts which I've included here too. It's great to hear and read how excited they still find podcasting and how they feel it helps them to express themselves. This is what they wrote:

• I liked making podcasts because I enjoy working in groups with my friends. It was fun coming up with ideas, listening to other people’s podcasts and being on Mr Dale’s blog on the internet!
• I really enjoyed making a podcast and talking about the differences. It is really cool it is going on the Internet.
• It is a good idea and we can put our own thoughts onto it and we will actually be on the internet!
• I really enjoyed making the podcast as we got to say what we think is it is going to be like in Year 7.
• I really found it cool making the podcasts as you could say what you think about Year 7 on induction day!
• I really enjoyed the podcasts because I liked making them.
• I liked making the podcasts because we were able to say our opinion about Year 6 and year 7.
• I liked making podcasts because it is fun to put your voice on the internet.
• I liked making podcasts because it is fun to let people know your ideas and then you are on the internet and you hear your voice.
• I think podcasting was a good idea because we heard how people wrote scripts.
• I think podcasting was great because it means I can express my views.
• I think podcasting is good because you can say what you think and you can put it on the web.
• I thought that the podcasting was a great idea and loads of fun!
• I thought it was really funny and cool but the best part was editing it and it was quite funny to hear some mistakes.
• I thought it was fun to record it and when we were listening back, I kept on laughing!
• That cool broadcast thing was so cool!  Funny when I listened to it.
• It was fun to do and I enjoyed it a lot.
• Doing the podcasts were really good and it was really funny when we had to edit it.
• I think making the podcast was fun and exciting. I think it was a good way to get to know people in your class.
• I think the podcast was really fun. I enjoyed hearing everyone’s interview.
• I thought the podcast was great and I told people how we felt about induction day.
• I thought the podcast was cool and we had fun doing it.
• Making the podcast was cool, but random. Everyone thought I had a posh accent.
• I thought the podcast went alright, but it was fun and funny.
• I thought it was fun and enjoyable.
• I thought it was interesting.
• I thought the podcast was fun.

Even though this may be the last podcast I publish as a Nodehill teacher, I am very proud of bringing podcasting to the school three years ago and putting my name to our eclectic back catalogue. I hope this will not mark the end of podcasting at Nodehill, but only time will tell.

Improved drag and drop in PowerPoint

 

One of the creators of the magical draganddrop macro, Hans Werner Hofmann left a lovely comment on this blog recently saying how pleased he was that his creation had generated such a positive response and gave the great news that he has updated its functionality offering new possibilities for classroom use.

In addition to making an object follow the movement of the cursor when clicked, the macro can now also zoom in and out, rotate clockwise by 45 degrees at a time, add text and calculate mathematical formulas!

Following Hans' screencast explaining how to embed the macro into any presentation, I have updated  The Magic PowerPoint created by Jo Rhys-Jones acting Primary Languages Advisor for Hampshire to include the new instructions needed and to explain how to run the slideshow in PowerPoint 2007 which differs quite radically from previous versions.

Download TheMagicPowerpointMacroImproved.ppt

To use the draganddrop macro you must first make sure you have changed the security settings so that macros are enabled. Here's what you do:

To enable macros

In PowerPoint 2002, click Tools and Macro. In the menu which appears click Security and select the radio button next to Medium. Click OK and close PowerPoint.

In PowerPoint 2003, click Tools and Options. In the Options window that appears, click the Security Tab and the Macro Security button. Click the Security tab and select the radio button next to Medium. Click OK and close PowerPoint.

Now when you open a presentation which contains the draganddrop macro, click the Enable Macros button if it appears.

In PowerPoint 2007, click the Office Button and then PowerPoint Options

Click Trust Center and Trust Center Settings 

 

Click Macro Settings and select the radio button next to Disable all macros with notification. Click OK twice.

 

Click Options on the Security Warning message that appears

 

In the Security Options window which appears, select the radio button next to Enable this content. Click OK.

 

To apply the draganddrop macro

In PowerPoint 2002/03, right click the object you want to drag and drop, select Action Settings and then Run macro: DragandDrop and click OK.

In PowerPoint 2007, select the object you want to drag and drop, click the Insert menu and the Action icon. In the Action Settings dialogue box that appears, select Run macro: DragandDrop and click OK.

Once you've applied the macro, you can delete the other slides and run the slideshow by pressing F5 or clicking Slide Show and From Beginning. Hover over the object and you will see the cursor change to a hand as if it were a hyperlink. Now use the following key combinations to enable the different features:

• Click + move the cursor = Drag and Drop
• Click + Ctrl = Zoom out
• Click + Ctrl + Alt = Zoom in
• Click + Shift = Rotate clockwise by 45 degrees at a time
• Click + Alt = Input Text
• Click + Shift + Alt = Calculate Formulas

N.B. When adding text to an object, Fertig = OK and Abbrechen = Cancel

More magic tips

1. To avoid your presentation from accidentally ending with a mouse click or moving on to the next slide, click on Slide Show/Slide Transition and remove the tick from the box next to Advance On Mouse Click for PowerPoint 2002/3. For PowerPoint 2007, click the Animations menu and remove the tick from the box next to Advance On Mouse Click. Save your presentation.
2. To move to the next slide, add an Action Button. In PowerPoint 2002/3, click Slide Show/Action Buttons and select the Action Button which points right. In PowerPoint 2007, click the Insert menu and Shapes, then scroll down to the Action Buttons and select the Action Button which points right. Then in both cases hold down the left click and drag the Action Button shape as large as need be. Let go of the left click. A dialogue box should come up. In the dropdown menu Hyperlink to, select Next slide. Run the slideshow and click the Action Button to go to the next slide.
3. Have a look at Mark Purves' video tutorial on using the original version of the drag and drop macro with Jo Rhys-Jones' PowerPoint tricks presentation. Nice work.