Category Archives: Digital

Augmented Reality in the Classroom

colar1ColAR is a new way I have come across to integrate technology into the classroom . The website offers a range of free pages that can be printed on any type of paper using any printer (no magic ink required). The app is free to download and works on both IOS and Android. Children (or teachers) simply colour the sheet (although it is not a requirement), lay the sheet on a flat surface, hold the device above the sheet (ensuring that the whole sheet is visible) and let the magic happen.

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Great learning starts by asking great questions

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Kahoot!

A game-based classroom response system

As a teacher you should sign-up for free at getkahoot.com to create a quiz, discussion or survey. I found the quizzes very useful as a formative assessment tool. I created quizzes, the students created quizzes and we worked in groups to answer the questions (this was mainly due to the fact that we lacked the technology in the school for each child to have a device).

Kahoot generates a pin number for each quiz, discussion or survey. If students are using a hand-held device (phone, tablet, etc) then they simply download the Kahoot app (which is available for free on all platforms – Android, IOS, etc) and enter the pin. If using a desktop or laptop then students simply open kahoot.it and enter the pin.

2015-03-13_1519 Read the rest of this entry

Inside Education Interview

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I was recently interviewed by Seán Delaney for Inside Education: a programme that gives an Irish perspective on news and stories from the world of education

Click here to listen to the podcast:

http://www.podbean.com/media/player/pejmz-54727d/initByJs/1/auto/1

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One Element of Internet Safety

2015-03-08_1405Came across a website recently called HOW SECURE IS MY PASSWORD and was delighted to find that it would take a desktop PC about 4 thousand years to crack my password (long past my sell by date). However I personally can honestly put that down to having a friend who taught me about the importance of passwords. You should go now and check your password but be sure to come back and read the rest of this post 🙂
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Have you met OhBot?

Ohbot starts life as a kit of parts and a set of instructions. One or more humans are needed to transform these parts into a robot friend.

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CESI Conference 2015

Computers in Education Society of Ireland – CESI.ie

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To Flip Or Not To Flip – One Teachers Journey

Flipped Learning – An Introduction

fc1The flipped classroom is a model, in which teachers post videos online in lieu of lessons in the classroom. Content is delivered at home instead of traditional homework and students spend class time actively working on tasks to assimilate learning.

Contrary to popular belief, despite Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams publishing ‘Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day’ in 2012 popularising the model of the flipped classroom, they are not the pioneers in the area of the flipped classroom.

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Twittering in School

2013-10-07 15.59.31-1I am not a fan of handwriting copies, however I found that integrating social media into our handwriting copies made it a much more enjoyable task. Everyday students wrote a tweet (140 characters) in their handwriting copies.
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Beyond The Horizon Report

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The Horizon Report (2014 Schools Edition) aims to help ministers, governing boards, and school leaders to strategically approach the further evolution of teaching, learning, and creative inquiry by offering a list of topics likely to impact technology planning and decision-making over the next five years (2014 – 2018). Below are a list of the questions and answers provided in the report.


Which technologies will be most important to teaching, learning, or creative inquiry in         European schools within the next five years?

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less

  1. Cloud Computing
  2. Tablet Computing
  3. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

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Blogging in the Classroom

Blogging

Report on a field trip or virtual field trip
Have students act as reporters talking about a field trip or special event. They can pretend to have interviewed a cow at the farm they visited or be straightforward in reporting the real events of the trip. Students could also write up a virtual field trip they took online in class.

Share a Photo of your Classroom
Encourage children from your class to leave comments about what they like about it or even suggestions for changes they would like to see.

Publish Children’s Work
Don’t just post work that is flawless but also invite comments and suggestions on work that can be improved. Read the rest of this entry