TeachMeet Clare

A couple of weeks ago, one Friday evening I found myself driving to Ennis to the Clare TeachMeet.  This TeachMeet was organised by Leanne Lynch.  It was her first event of this type so I was looking forward to seeing what the vibe would be on the night.  I’ve been to many educational events over the years and more than my fair share of TeachMeets and I’ve found that each one has it’s own energy.  I made a spur of the moment decision to bring my daughter and my niece with me on the night.  They are both members of the Youth Media Team and I thought we might get a few interviews on the night.

Being met with food on arrival always bodes well for the night ahead … and what followed didn’t disappoint! We had a lively but leisurely 2 hours of learning preceded by a warm welcome from Leanne

Next up was Mags Amond sharing some of her research on TeachMeets …

… and challenging us to break in to (or out of) jars to get to the makings of her now legendary glowies 🙂

Followed by Chris Reina who took us on a whistle stop tour of 65 apps in 7 minutes!

Next, Martina O’Grady shared her experience of dropping the use of a Maths book in primary school …

… and Aaron Carroll told us about Flipping the Classroom with the irishhomework.ie website.

This was followed by Sean Murphy telling us about Minecraft and Raspberry Pi for coding …

… Roseanne Healy reminding us of the importance of using ‘concrete materials’ with students …

… and Niamh Quinn on extending Aistear into 1st and 2nd class

All of the above in not much more than an hour!! So now it was time to get up and get active with GoNoodle

It was good to get up and moving, which led nicely into the next presentation from Bryn Llewellyn from Tagtiv8

 

I loved Bryn’s idea to have students choose different Kahoot answers by making different shapes – active learning at its best!

Steve Holmes then talked us through his Scratch Climate Sensor application including some data on Hurricane Ophelia and Storm Brian …

… followed by a quick look at Green Screen film making with Cormac Cahill.

Next up was Lauren King sharing her ideas on Business in Action and the Tenner challenge

and finally Jackie Maurer spoke about the CRAFTEd project

All that was left to do was for Leanne to wrap up the night and this was the golden moment of the night for me as Leanne asked to reflect on why we do what we do …

Leanne reminded us of the impact of Bianca Ní Ghrógáin whose ideas percolated through many of the evenings presentations … and of Tim Rylands, whose memorial service was held on that evening … before signing off with a story that her current 6th class had written when she had taught them 4 years previously.  A beautiful way to end a fantastic night.  I loved the vibe on the night – a lot was covered in a short time frame but it was done in a very relaxed way. For me it was all that a TeachMeet should be!

The icing on the cake was that Cara and Amy got a chance to interview Bryn, Leanne, Pat Hanrahan (Director of the Education Centre) and Mags who shared a few thoughts on Tim Rylands.  You can check out their interviews here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fighting Words Workshop at SCoTENS

Usually when I’m working with the Youth Media Team at an event I don’t get to see much of what’s going on because we’re busy preparing for interviews, interviewing and writing up our account of what has gone on.  Yesterday at SCoTENS (Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South) I made an exception on Conor Galvin’s recommendation.  It turned out to be a very good recommendation to go to the Fighting Words workshop.

Fighting Words provides free tutoring and mentoring in creative writing and related arts to as many children, young adults and adults with special needs as we can reach. Our programmes and workshops are delivered mainly by volunteers. (ref: http://www.fightingwords.ie/about-us).

At the workshop we worked though a creative writing exercise aimed at Primary level. Sean Love from Fighting Words in Dublin led us through the exercise with Geraldine Wilkins from Fighting Words in Belfast documenting our story.  Sean started by getting us to suggest a main character. With 3 potential characters (with names and foibles included e.g. Sarah who only ate yellow food) we then got to vote on which one we would choose.  To vote we had to close our eyes to provide a secret vote.  I have to say I just loved the idea – it was such an effective way of coming up with a main character, their friend, their ambition and their greatest fear.  After we had chosen all of these in a similar manner, we began the writing process.  The idea is to create the beginning a story that can then be taken in many different directions.

As I was sitting in the workshop it struck me that this might be a great process to come up with ideas for games or animations in Scratch in CoderDojo.  Sometimes I find that the kids can come up blank when they’re trying to come up with ideas and I think this might kick start that process for them.  Even the process of coming up with ideas as a group is very creative and might in itself provide enough to get kids over their initial lack of ideas.

Having seen a scaled down version of the process I’d love to see a full on workshop so thank you Conor for the recommendation 🙂

Take Joy in Learning – #blimage

Prompted by Catherine Cronin’s #blimage post last week I’ve decided to take up the challenge and share an image that embodies so much about learning for me. The idea behind #blimage is to blog in response to an image.  When it came to picking the image, the one that kept coming to mind was …

There is so much about this image that I love. It was taken at the ICT in Education conference in April this year and it includes Ciaran Cannon TD and Bianca Ní Ghrógáin as well as my daughter and some of her friends.  I’m using the image here with the kind permission of Ciaran.

There are so many layers to this image that make it such a powerful one for me; the sheer joy that jumps out, the casual inclusion of technology and finally the bringing together of the powerful triumvirate of an inspiring, fire starter of an educator, a group of enthusiastic, inquisitive students and a member of parliament who is truly interested and passionate about the use of technology in education.  What is most poignant about the image, is that since it was taken, we have lost the truly unique educator that Bianca was.  On a personal level I’ve also lost a good friend, who along with others has shaped my ever evolving thinking on teaching and learning.

This image perfectly captures Bianca’s style of leading from the back.  She had a knack of not getting in the way of the learning that goes on. So many of us, myself included, can often fall into the trap of over directing how and when students learn.  Having observed Bianca in many educational settings, from her own classroom, to CoderDojo sessions, to workshops at conferences among others, what always struck me was that she was prepared to take chances by not over prescribing how things were going to work.  She trusted that learning would happen and she was willing to let it evolve with a carefully placed nudge here and there.  On the day before the conference in April, Bianca and Susan Nic Reamoinn did a workshop with the girls using technology such as BeeBots, Kano and Makey Makey. These were technologies that the girls hadn’t used before, and yet by the following day the girls were happily demonstrating what they’d learned with a confidence that didn’t even hint at the very short length of time that they had actually used them for.

I’m going to cheat a little by using a second image in this post.

This picture was also taken at the conference and captures the fun that was so much a part of that 24 hours.  It’s a timely reminder of the joy to be found in learning …

ICT in Education conference 2015

The ICT in Education conference takes place on Saturday 25th April on the Thurles campus of LIT.  Our theme this year is “Make, Bake, Take” and we’re delighted to have a pre-conference Maker Meet on the Friday night.  It promises to be a fun 24 hours of learning, chatting and sharing 🙂

A call for presenters is currently open and will close on Tuesday 31st March.  Online registration is also open with a ‘bring a buddy’ reduced rate available to attendees this year.  As in previous years, the conference would be nothing without the teachers across the spectrum of education in Ireland who make the ‘Trip to Tipp’ to share great ideas, to learn from each other, to renew old friendships and make new ones.

So, if you have something good to share or if you want to come away with lots of ideas for your own classroom check out the conference website to submit a proposal to present or to register for the conference and Maker Meet.

Coolest Projects

My daughter has been in CoderDojo for more than 2 years but wasn’t sure what was involved in Coolest Projects so we decided to go to DCU on Jun 7th to see what it was all about.  After a busy few weeks of conferences that I was directly involved in, it was lovely to spend the day at an event as a tourist.  The icing on the cake was that it was a day out for just the two of us 🙂 After the opening ceremony, we got a chance to check out some of the more than 250 projects on show on the day.  As a Scratch fan and with a growing interest in the Makey Makey kit we made our way to the Scratch room first.   We saw lots of interesting ideas but I think our favourite project was ‘Are you smarter than a cat?’  It turns out that collectively we are (although, if truth be told, I’m not sure I would have been, without her help :))

We also went to a couple of the talks, which were more for me than her so I kept those to a minimum.  There were a lot of projects to see (250 in total across five categories – Scratch, Website, App, Mixed and Other) so we got to see lots of variety across the entries. Hopefully we’ll be back next year with an entry so she’ll get a chance to be part of the awards ceremony 🙂

We finished off the day as we started it, hanging around the DCU sign, except this time it was with Bianca Ní Ghrógain 🙂

Excited 2014

 

I enjoyed the Excited festival even though I didn’t get to see as much of it as I would have liked due to my commitments with the Youth Media Team.  What I did see impressed me though, as it seemed to be a genuine attempt to bring together many of the stakeholders in our education system – teachers, students, policy makers and industry.  It was heartening to see both teachers and students involved in a very real way across the two days of the event.  For me, the stars of the show were the BT Young Scientist former winners, Ciara Judge, Sophie Healy-Thow and Emer Hickey.  They reported back on Friday’s proceedings during Saturday’s event in a confident, articulate and kick ass way!

Photo from http://www.siliconrepublic.com

Of course, it was just my luck to be involved in a panel directly after their slot!  I was honoured to be included in a panel but, if I’m honest, I was frustrated at my input on the panel.  I find panels difficult to prepare for due to their diverse nature and it can sometimes be difficult to get in when you want to.  A perfect example of this was the topic of online safety and cyber bullying that was part of the discussion on my panel.  My tuppence worth on the topic is that this is not just an issue for schools.  Parents need to take responsibility for this crucial aspect of their child’s safety and we need to be careful as educators that we don’t allow parents to abdicate their responsibility here.  A tweet from a while back comes to mind!

As a parent myself, I take this aspect of my children’s safety very seriously and find it difficult to understand when others just seem to accept that they are completely out of the loop in this area of their children’s lives.  Schools aren’t expected to assume responsibility for children’s physical safety outside of school hours so I’m a bit baffled as to why they are expected to assume responsibility for their online safety.  I didn’t get a chance to say this on the day so I’m saying it now 🙂

 

Youth Media Team at Excited 2014

The Excited Festival of Digital learning gave the Youth Media Team a chance to go on tour again.  The Festival was held over the Friday and Saturday of the June bank holiday.  We landed in Dublin Castle at 11am on the Friday with our gazebo in tow and promptly got caught up in the excitement that was Excited!  The plan was that we would work with RTE Digital on the Friday, the most amazing opportunity for our red shirts! We had four of the Tipperary contingent and another four from St Wolstan’s in Celbridge in Kildare as part of the Friday team.  St. Wolstan’s had set up a Radio TY group as part of their Transition Year programme based on the YMT so it was a fantastic opportunity to get both groups working together. While we got settled with RTE, our gazebo specialist with help from his son got to work constructing our home for the next few days 🙂 The brief with RTE was to create a behind the scenes look at the students Dragon’s Den that was a feature of the day.  We had to choose people for the various roles – producers, directors, presenters, camera assistant and editor.  Once the team had sorted that out between themselves it was time to get to work.

Over the course of Friday night and Saturday, the team got on with their ‘day’ jobs of interviewing, blogging and tweeting. They interviewed Lord Puttnam, Marty Cooper (inventor of the mobile phone) and Dr. Rene Lydiksen (Managing Director of Lego Education Europe) among others.

We also got a chance to be part of the highlights from the Festival on both sides of the camera 🙂

All in all it was a great opportunity for the team to be involved in such a central way in the inaugural Excited Digital Learning Festival.  You can check out their work from the event at ymt.fm.

What a backdrop!

ICT in Education conference 2014

The 10th ICT in Education conference took place on Saturday 10th May.  As in previous years CESI hosted a TeachMeet on the previous evening, and, as always, it provided attendees with a relaxing evening of catching up with old friends and new.  The sharing began on the Thurles campus and continued later in the Anner Hotel.  It was great to see new faces begin to share what is working for them in their classrooms.  All in all, a great kickstarter for the conference to come.

Saturday saw the busiest conference we’ve had with a vibrant exhibitor presence as well as an increased student presence.  LIT President, Maria Hinfelaar, welcomed attendees to the ‘Global Voices’ themed conference before handing over to Minister for Training and Skills, Ciaran Cannon.  We are very fortunate, to have a Junior Minister who is so interested and engaged in making progress in the integration of technology across all levels of our education system.  Next up was former Teacher of the Year, Evelyn O’Connor.  Evelyn’s heartfelt sharing of her experiences rang true for so many in the room.  Too often, people gloss over the difficulties when sharing their experiences.  It’s good to hear the a balanced view of the rough with the smooth to enable us to see the light at the end of the tunnel when it all seems to be going wrong!

Next came the experimental part of the day.  We decided, with some prompting from Conor Galvin and Bernie Goldbach, to try an open workshop format for a portion of the day.  This section was titled ‘The W@lk’ and our aim was to showcase some of the work that is going on in classrooms across the country allowing attendees to observe rather than participate.  We had six stations on the W@lk.

1. Bridge 21 – an education programme based in Trinity which can be adapted for use in secondary schools. The model is team based, technology mediated, project based and cross curricular.  On the day Kevin Sullivan worked with a group of local secondary school students to produce video clips on what students should learn in school and also a more frivolous clip 

   

2. MissionV – a creative, immersive games based learning environment for schools and industry.  On the day John Jennings and Esther Lambe provided attendees with an opportunity to try out the Oculus Rift as well as sharing the experience of Esther’s school while using Mission V.
3. CoderDojo Thurles – a free coding club for young people.  Jacqueline Humphries along with the team of mentors and Dojo ninjas showcased some of the projects the Dojo has been working on throughout the year including HMTL, App Development, electronics and so much more
4. Radio TY from St. Wolstan’s in Celbridge – a youth media team based on our own YMTfm.  Noeleen Leahy brought a group of students who shared their experiences of setting up a media team in a school.  They managed to squeeze in an interview or two along the way as well as take some selfies 🙂
5. Makey Makey workshop – Bianca Ní Ghrógáin assisted by Hassan Dabbagh led a workshop with some local primary school children in the use of the Makey Makey kit in conjunction with Scratch.
6. Project Spark – Stephen Howell from Microsoft demonstrated the Project Spark application

While the W@lk was a new departure for us, and there are definitely areas which need a little polishing, the initiative was very well received by both participants and attendees alike, with many commenting that it was a timely reminder placing students at the centre of what we as educators do.

In his own inimitable way Stephen Howell pulled many of the mornings strands together in his plenary session, before attendees got to choose from a wide variety of workshops led by educators across the levels.  The hum of conversation at lunch time was an indicator of the level of engagement and enthusiasm from the teachers who came from far and wide on a Saturday to keep themselves up to date on the use of technology in the classroom.

After lunch saw a continuation of the parallel workshops before the closing session with Julie Cullen and Helen Keegan.  Julie is the Young Advisor to Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission, and she shared her experiences of EU Code Week which saw Ireland punch far above our weight with the most events.  Helen Keegangave the closing presentation of the day, sharing her global collaborations which she undertook with her third level students.

The Youth Media Team returned to their ‘home’ conference after a hugely successful year and under the guidance of Joe Dale, Conor Galvin and Catherine Cronin they produced an eBook of the days’s proceedings.  We’re currently in the process of getting it published.

It was a jam packed day of sharing, chatting and being happy 🙂

 

 

 

Scratch National Finals

May 2nd saw me make my way to Dublin Castle for the National Scratch Finals. The decision was made to run the finals on the same day as the Formula 1 in Schools finals which were taking place at the end of the first Irish Tech Week.   I’d been asked a few weeks previously to judge the competition and despite some hesitation I decided to agree. My hesitation came from my lack of experience of judging a competition like this, or in fact any competition.  I’m so glad that I did agree as I got a chance to see first hand the creativity on display.

I arrived in Dublin Castle at about 10.30 to be briefed on the task in hand.  I was down to judge in the 5th and 6th class category with two other judges.  We were to judge the entries separately and then meet to agree the winner in the category.  Then came the hard work of judging.  I have to admit I really enjoyed this part as it gave me an opportunity to chat with the students about their projects.  There were five projects in total and in my naivety I thought I’d get through them reasonably quickly giving me the chance to see some of the other projects on display.  This wasn’t to be the case because I found that once I started asking questions the children just wanted to talk about their projects.  It was clear that they all really enjoyed working on them and that they had learnt a lot in the process.  From my perspective, this made them all winners 🙂 Of course, they couldn’t all be winners but choosing our overall winner wasn’t as difficult as I had originally thought.  Sometimes one project stands out from the others and this was the case for us.  Having said that, it was a close contest and it was great to see two projects from our category awarded the ‘Best Educational Content’ award and the ‘Best Social Project’ award.  I even got to present the Best Technical Sophistication award

Photo courtesy of the http://www.scratch.ie website

All in all it was a great day with the beautiful Dublin Castle providing a stunning backdrop for the days proceedings.

 

 

CESI Conference 2014

It’s been more than 2 weeks since the 2014 CESI conference and it’s only now that I’m getting to reflect on the event.  Because of my involvement with the Youth Media Team on the day, I didn’t get to sit in on as many of the presentations as I would have liked.  Having said that, working with the team was great so it was worth the sacrifice.

After CESI Chair, Adrienne Webb, welcomed us all to Galway Minister Ciaran Cannon then delivered his opening address.  He reminded us that we need to educate our students for their future not our past and spoke of the way in which technology will facilitate global collaboration in the classrooms of the future.  This really resonated with me as ‘Global Voices’ is our theme for the 2014 ‘ICT in Education’ conference.  He then spoke about a Digital festival of Learning to be held in Dublin Castle on May 30th and 31st May.  I’m looking forward to hearing more about this event and to being involved with the Youth Media Team.  There was a bit of discussion on the backchannel on Twitter about the Minister’s reference to coding.  My thoughts on coding are well known.  I lecture in a technology department to computing students and I’ve been involved in CoderDojo for more than two years.  I do however agree that coding must have a context in an educational setting and that it’s not just about teaching coding but about another way of thinking.

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Spark the Imagination’ and I think it’s fair to say that Dr. Daithí Ó Murchú did just that! One of the things I most enjoy about conferences like the CESI one is the mix of inspirational keynote addresses and practical workshops and presentations.  Daithí’s keynote was certainly inspirational.

He asked us to look to 2050

Daithí reminded us of the need to develop coping strategies.  He spoke of Continuous Partial Attention as opposed to Multitasking. His parting shot was to remind us of the need to take time out.  Turn the phone off, meditate …  This is something that becomes harder to do but which becomes more and more important  in this ever changing, connected world.

Next up were Dr. Michael Hallissy and Dr. Deirdre Butler who spoke about the National Digital Strategy and the future of education.  Unfortunately I missed this session but judging from the proliferation of tweets they provided attendees with plenty of food for thought.

The packed schedule of breakout sessions provided lots of variety for attendees, so much so, that the Youth Media Team found it difficult to find people who had time to give their thoughts on the event, for  much of the early part of the day!

The closing plenary sessions were a great way to round off what was a fantastic day, of sharing all that is good about technology in education across all levels.  James Corbett, from MissionV, combined the past and the future in his presentation using the Oculus Rift.  Stephen Howell, from Microsoft, then took us on a tour of Project Spark.  Dave even got the chance to have a play

Sending people home with their heads filled with inspiration, ideas and lots of practical ways to make changes in their classroom is what you hope for as an organiser of any conference.  I think the organisers of the CESI conference certainly fulfilled this remit.  All I can hope for, is that we can do the same for the attendees of the ICT in Education conference in Thurles in May!

The full transcript of tweets of the event can be found here.