East Base - Innovation in Learning

In my second session focused on the use of Digital Technology at the brilliant new Osprey Quay Campus, I found myself in the wonderful East Base. This base has such a family feel about it already and is a really exciting place.

 

Initial Activity
We began our time together today by having a game of hide and seek with Mr. Wrightson on Google Hangout. Mr. Wrightson is a member of our Facilities Team and showed us some places that we never knew even existed at Osprey Quay Campus.

What is a Google Hangout?
A Google Hangout is a type of video conferencing that works from right within your IPACA Email (for pupils in Y10/Y11 and all members of staff). Hangouts provide a quick a simple way to connect to the world and allow you to have up to 10 people at a time in the space.

Hook - 
After our call with Mr. Wrightson, I explained to the pupils how keen I was to find out about how they thought technology might help them learn. I asked the pupils to work in groups of five to discuss and if possible record their thoughts. Please see below for some pictures of the students recording their work on a variety of surfaces:

  

Five Activities 
After talking through the above, pupils were then given the chance to explore five activities using the iPad Mini. A breakdown of these activities are included below.

Activity 1 - Pic Collage App -
Pic Collage is a very simple app that allow you to work very visually with pictures, text and 'stickers'. Today we used the app to complete a shape walk of the campus. The group of pupils, led by Mrs. Fry, walked around East Base looking for shapes within the base.

Special Hint - All the IPACA student iPads have built in email support which allows for content to be instantly shared. This email address works on a one-way basis and does not accept emails sent to it. To access this feature, just click the 'mail' icon at the bottom of the iPad Screen. Now click 'compose' and add your content, when happy just press 'send' to complete the process. 

Activity 2 - Funny Photo Booth -

PhotoBooth for Mac is a fun yet powerful app that is built into every Apple laptop or desktop computer. It is ideal for children to explore and engage with.

Activity 3 - Bee Bot App - Independent -
The below is a great App for children to explore independently, some will love it and instantly will engage and understand the directional movement involved.

Activity 4 - Morfo - Adult Support -
Morfo is a very, very fun app. Unfortunately, it is not Airplay enabled which means it will not work alongside the Apple TV displays. However, it is still worth using in your lessons and can really bring a subject alive. See below for a great example of this app in action:

Activity 5 - i-Motion App -
i-Motion is my favourite animation app for iPad and I have used it for a couple of years now. It is fast, intuitive and FREE! Animation is a tool that can be used in any subject to bring a dull topic to life. As children explore how to represent a concept they internalise their learning and offer lots of opportunities for new knowledge, skills and understanding.

 

Please see below for i-Motion in action:

To Finish:

To finish the session, I asked the children to reflect on all that they had used in this lesson. We were hoping to record a radio show together about our learning, but we ran out of time (there is always next time). If we had time to do this, I would have used Spreaker to do this.

Spreaker or Spreaker.com is an amazing tool for making radio/podcast recordings. The tool works across multiple platforms including iPad, iPhone, Android and through a browser (meaning any PC or Mac with a web browser). For more information on Spreaker, check out: http://www.spreaker.com. 

Extra Information (that has already been referenced in other posts before) -

Devices 
Today we used IPACA's very latest ICT again in the form of 30 iPad Minis. Just like those in the EYFS base, these iPads have all been configured using Apple Configurator with the same apps and settings, meaning they are easy to use on a large scale. The iPads also support MDM (mobile device management), this mean we can control the devices remotely, including adding apps.

In East Base, all the iPad Minis have a blue Big Grips Tweener Case. Lots of people have asked me about these cases already (which are a personal favourite of mine). For more information see: http://www.biggrips.com/tweener.html

Guided Access
Today we used the 'guided access' feature on an iPad to ensure that pupils stay inside one app for the duration of their activity. This feature is particularly useful in an EYFS and KS1 setting and a full guide is included below:

All iPads within IPACA have the same guided access password, please ask a member of the Digital Technology Support Team if you need a reminder.

Windows into the World
Just like the EYFS base at Osprey Quay is equipped with three 42" digital displays as well as two (there will be three in the long-term) 65" BenQ touch-screen panels. Today we used the three 42" digital displays to show a 'window into the world'.

We did this by 'Airplaying' live video feeds from San Diego Zoo through the iPad into the Apple TV which is included with all the 42" displays.

For a link to the San Diego Zoo cameras please click here: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/videos/

For a full video on how to use airplay screen mirroring, please check out this essential guide: