Half Term

Back at work today, though I have been spending a good deal of time at home trying to get the Primary ICT web site going. I have had lots of ideas and a good deal of content, the problem has been CSS and table sizes and my scant knowledge of these issues.

To explain the site has been created in Dreamweaver, which gives an altogether better look than the current LGFL SITE templates, (may I be cursed for such blasphemy), however I still want the site to be part of the LGFL, as I approve of its use greatly. After all it is a VLE, is it not?

After spending a good deal of time creating pages and adding nice FLASH Elements, I find that the pages overshoot the screen. My fault I should have realized there were restrictions to uploading HTML. I will endeavor to sort this out by Monday and at least have 3 pages online by then as I am sick of talking about this great new web site to people and then not delivering!

Today I have been looking at the QCA ICT Assessment activities for Key Stage 1. These are really rather good actually and worth a look. Using these is part of the improving side of my work, the side that is a lot harder than the innovating but ultimately more rewarding. It is quite easy to get caught up in new software and new peripherals and how to use them.. Apple Projects... PDAs etc  but the hard stuff is actually improving teaching and learning through :

improved teacher knowledge

high quality planning

rigorous and manageable assessment

Its a message that I need to hammer home a bit more to schools next term as the innovation wave is an easy and more appealing wave to ride, whereas the improvement wave is not even a wave its more of a sun scorched tarmaced causeway negotiate in mid June. Which is why I am blogging now, rather than busying myself with real work!!

Anyway here's a good thing I found today :

Air Sounds

It looks like a cheap piece of software that reacts to a webcam by playing virtual instrumnets, this from the webiste:

 

AirSounds is a new program that uses a webcam to allow you to wave a hand in mid-air to play musical instruments. It's magic!

What is it for?
Encouraging movement skills and coordination, music therapy, or just plain noisy fun for wet playtimes and end of term activities.

What does it do?
Airsounds uses your webcam to place your image on the screen, along with a range of musical instruments. By waving your hand over one, you can start it playing - sometimes just a short note, sometimes a short tune.

http://www.xavier.bangor.ac.uk/xavier/AirSounds.shtml

 

I am going to download it tonight and try it - watch this space!!