drew.burrett

Having filled up this edublog account (its 97% full) and not wanting to shell out for the paid for bigger account, I’m thinking of moving, or just starting else where.

I already have a wordpress.com site and my own, recently started but entirely empty stuckwithphysics.co.uk site.

Don’t know if I should export everything from here and put it in wherever I decide to move to, or leave it here for posterity.

Whatever I decide, I really need to become a better blogger. More often, more worthwhile and I’d better start tagging stuff properly too.

Off sick today, watching the NASA LCROSS mission to find water ice on the Moon.

Wondered if I could add the feed from msnbc.com to a Glow Group.

It turns out that I could.

Here

Went to the Beeb at Pacific Quay last night to take part in TeachMeet SLF09, a truly inspiring gathering of colleagues across the education sector.

Thanks and congratulations to Ollie Bray and everyone else involved in making it all happen.

There were many excellent examples of great ideas being shared, from Stuart Meldrum’s cut-price visualiser, to Nick Hood’s critical thinking activity. It was enlightening too, to be involved in a discussion about assessment and examinations and what the future might hold.

I especially enjoyed the presentation from Neil Winton which I have embedded below. It speaks for itself to a large extent, but the genuine enthusiasm, conviction and humour with which Neil delivered it, brought another unique dimension.

Found myself at an IOP meeting the other night – another great bit of CPD.

On the way home on the train I got to thinking about all of these events that I’ve been to over the last wee while and how I really ought to make a record of what I go to, if nothing else because I’m *supposed* to.

It occurred to me that there must be a way to do so in Glow, probably best to put something into ‘My Glow’. So that is what I did.

Using the ‘Form’ web part, it was easy enough (though not possibly as easy as it *could* be) to add a CPD log to my ‘My Glow’.

Candidates must keep a daily account  of all work undertaken as part of their investigation. This is the evidence of their having completed the specified unit of the Advanced Higher Physics course.

This ‘daybook’ is entirely separate from the “write up” which is a formal document that constitutes a proportion of the candidates overall grade for the final examination.

Traditionally candidates have produced daybooks of varying quality, including varying quantities of material, which (and I may be alone here) are only really looked at if a centre is moderated by the SQA.

The only requirement, that I can see, from the SQA is that the daybook is available in a paper format.

This got me thinking – why could candidates not use a blog to record their day to day progress?

I’ve asked the Scottish Physics teaching community – SPUTNIK – and while there is interest, nobody can confirm that a blog would be an acceptable format in which a candidate might complete this piece of work.

I’m reluctant to encourage any of my candidates to embark on this course of action without first knowing that this format will be admissible. This being the case I’ve contacted the Qualifications Manager for Physics at the SQA, Andrew Shield.

Watch this space – and maybe a few others.

Made an Animoto movie using the Cfe wordles I did yesterday, for want of any other images to hand.

I was hoping to get an idea of how easy or otherwise it’d be for pupils to use (assuming websense allows access – must check tomorrow).

Took a while to render, and I rushed the choice of music, but the result is ok. I think.

Comments please?

Had a go at putting some CfE Third & Fourth Level Physics E&O’s together into wordles, mainly for brightening up my room, but thought they might help me to focus on the essence of each sub topic when developing new courses.

In no particular order -

After meaning to try a wordle for ages I finally had a go.

Not bad for a first effort eh?

Just spent over an hour using ‘Glow Meet’ with Sinclair Mackenzie trying out the video conferencing and having a few scribbles on the white board.

I wanted to try it out before attempting a demo at Teachmeet:Physics on Thursday, where I’m doing a wee thing on using Glow in the classroom.

Another Glow evangelist – Jaye Richards -  had hoped to do a presentation on using the Nintendo Wii to teach sound & light, but is now unable to attend. There was a lightbulb moment, and Sinclair suggested trying to get Jaye to do her presentation using Glow Meet. Unfortunately this won’t be possible either, but it was a great idea.

Andrew Brown and Neil Winton suggested a link with a Glow Learn training course happening in Stirling on the same night. I hoped they were joking at first, but flushed with success, I’m now thinking ‘why not?’.

I was pretty unconvinced by Glow Meet when it was demonstrated at my Mentor training – I appreciated the technical prowess, but couldn’t see a way I’d use it for teaching.

Events like Teachmeets, distance learning for pupils in remote rural areas, CPD and subject meetings (especially ones in Inveraray) all lend themselves spectacularly well to Glow Meet. I’m hoping someone more influential than me (that’s pretty much anyone then) can take this idea and run with it.

Watch this space, or perhaps another space……

Saw this done at a SSERC course and thought I’d try it with some classes. To save the massive expense of multiple tins of tomatoes I got a pupil to video the demo using a busbi video camera.

Et voila!

Forces Demo