Google Basics for Teaching Course

Teachers at the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy have been taking part in the 'Google Basics for Teaching Course' - link available here.

Today I had an email from Primary Teacher, Nikki Fryer, with her permission I would like to share this with you all -

Gary, I managed to find the time to complete the Google Basics Course today and I got my certificate! Attached as proof! 

I would be interested in other opportunities like this. 

The best thing for me was being able to do this course partly at home, partly in work and partly on the bus!

Incidentally, although I did not in the end do every single bit of coursework, I completed the project and my skills in uploading and sharing not only documents but pictures and music have increased by a mile. I've also learnt to use digital equipment in IPACA that I have not used before...

Thank-you to Nikki for allowing me to share this with everyone, I look forward to hearing many more success stories.

Chromebook Survey RESULTS

Chromebooks were first introduced to the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy as a pilot in February 2013. Following initial positive feedback they were then issued to all students from Year 7 to Year 11 in September 2013. Students are allowed to take devices home to support their learning.

See below for our most recent student survey results (direct link for mobile users - https://infogr.am/ipacalearn-chromebooks-the-survey-results-2014) -

#IPACALearn CHROMEBOOKS THE SURVEY RESULTS 2014 |Create infographics

Leap Forward

Learning Ski Jumping takes courage, and this young girl has what it takes to 'leap forward' - 

Love this video! Perfect for use in an assembly.

Fantastic App TeleStory

In case you haven't seen it, LaunchPad have launched a new app recently called TeleStory that enables students to film and broadcast their own TV shows. They can choose from four different themes - Star Adventure, The Band, Eye Spy, and now The News - to create live-action TV shows with digital costumes and special effects.

Apple just named TeleStory one of the "Best Apps of 2014". With The News, students can create a wide range of market, box-office, sports, weather, and traffic reports in the newsroom or LIVE in the field.

This app is well worth checking out!

LIVE Streaming Christmas Performance

Tonight saw the fabulous performance of Osprey Quay's 'FIVE GOLD RINGS', as well as the 200+ people in the audience we were joined by 30+ people remotely who watched a live stream of the performance. These people included family members who live afar, a Mum who watched live on the train back from a meeting in London and a Grandmother who watched from her hospital bed. For the results please click below -

This was all made possible through the use of three Chromebooks and the power of 'Google Hangouts on Air'. See below for more information on how this was achieved -

ORIGINAL SOURCE - http://blog.synergyse.com

Use Hangouts to Livestream - To set up a Google Hangout on Air (GHOA) to livestream, just create a Hangout on Air by navigating to http://plus.google.com, clicking the down arrow by “Home” on the left, clicking “Hangouts,” then clicking “Start a Hangout on Air” as seen in the animated gif below. 

Start your Hangout on air immediately by following the easy to understand prompts on the screen or set the Hangout to air later by clicking “Later” as seen in the image below:

If you want to record the Hangout without anyone being able to watch it live, remove “Public” from the Audience section and add your own email address. Once you have set up your Hangout to begin at a later date, you will see the event page and the “Start” button. You can bookmark this page and return to it at any time to start your Hangout on Air.

Once you've started your Hangout on Air, you will also need to click “Start broadcast” for YouTube to begin recording and your live audience to begin viewing. Just click the green “Start broadcast” button under your video to begin broadcasting. Note: to broadcast videos that are longer than 15 minutes, you will need to verify your YouTube account. Do that here.

After the broadcast is started an identical, but red, “Stop broadcast” button will appear.

In tonight's performance we invited multiple Chromebooks into the call to create different viewing angles. The results are not cinema, but for the relatives of the children who could not attend in person, there was NOTHING like seeing it live!