Projects Update
Integrating the use of innovative technology in education
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*      September 2009     *

Welcome

We hope you all had an enjoyable summer. We are looking forward to working with you again this year. Our objective as always is to get as many schools as possible involved in at least one major ICT project between now and June for showcasing at iFestival 2010. 

Over the next week each school will be receiving an information pack outlining our objectives for this academic year and the opportunities available to participate in DISC projects.

In this update you will find information on the following:

AGM

School Website

Podcasting

Showcases

Courses

Game Making

Animation

Managed Learning Environment

Useful Links

AGM

Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 7th October at 1:30 pm. Refreshments will be available from 1:00 onwards. Venue to be confirmed. This meeting is for anyone who is interested in the work of DISC and integrating the use of innovative technology in education.  It would help us if you could let us know if you are attending by Friday 2nd October.  

School Website

Have you got a school website. Why not nominate your site for an Irish Web Award. Get the staff, children and parents behind your nomination by inviting them to go to http://awards.ie/webawards/nominations/ .

Podcasting

This year we will be trying to link up a number of schools with local community radio stations Near FM on the northside and Digital Hub FM on the southside. For those that are interested in participating it will provide a great opportunity to have material broadcast from your school. Let us know if you would like to be involved so we can see how much funding will be required for the equipment necessary to produce quality recordings.

Showcases

ICT projects can of course be incorporated into any area of the curriculum but two events you might consider entering this year lend themselves to the integration of ICT in a very practical way.

The Primary Science Fair will be held at the same time as the Young Scientist Exhibition in January 2010. It is a great opportunity for primary pupils to participate in one of the largest events of its kind in Europe, attracting over 37,000 people. The science projects themselves don't have to be too complicated. As soon as details of the primary event are made available we'll contact schools.

When you are teaching your class about the third world why not consider doing a project to enter in the Our World Irish Aid Awards. You don't need an ICT Project to enter but incorporating one will give you an advantage. The Awards culminate in an exciting awards day in Dublin where a national panel of judges selects the most impressive entries from schools countrywide. We hope to see a school associated with DISC winning an award this year.
 

Courses

As in previous years we have a number of interesting courses on offer.

We have been recognised as an approved centre for the delivery of the Digital Cre8or certificate. We'll be running four courses that lead to the Digital Cre8or award. The modules we'll be offering are Digital Still Images, Moving Image Language, Storytelling with Animation and Sharing using Multimedia Presentations. The first course Digital Still Images starts on Monday 12th October.

Do you have programmable LEGO in your school? Then you might consider doing our LEGO course which is sponsored by Arup Consulting Engineers. The course will be run on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th October. Funding for substitute teachers will be available under certain conditions.

SMART technologies are hosting a two day course on Interactive Whiteboard content creation in November. A certain amount of funding will be available for substitute teachers but once again some conditions will apply.

We can help with the organisation of other ICT courses in your school. These can be in basic computing, office applications or interactive whiteboard use etc.

Please contact us as soon as possible if you are interested in doing any of the courses mentioned.
 

Game Making

The School of Computing at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Kevin St is offering a 10 week course in Computer Games Development to pupils in DISC secondary schools over the next academic year.

Pupils taking the course will be introduced to the discipline of Computer Science, and exposed to the format of third level education. The classes will be delivered by undergraduate students on the BSc Computer Science, and as such afford pupils taking the course an opportunity to meet with and interact with college students in their second year of post-secondary study.

Upon completion of the course, the pupils will have successfully developed a computer game using the Game Maker toolkit, and as such will understand the role of software design, computer programming and interface design in software engineering. This provides pupils with an opportunity to acquire entry level skills in an area of computing which is rapidly expanding and which promises to offer future graduates with job opportunities which draw on their creativity as much as their technical ability.

Classes will take place on Wednesday afternoons from 17:00 to 18:30 in the Kevin Street Campus of the Dublin Institute of Technology. The course will begin in 11th November and will run for 10 weeks, with a break for Christmas.

For further details on the course, please see http://www.comp.dit.ie/coleary/gm.

Should you wish to get more details, please contact Ciarán O'Leary ciaran.oleary at comp.dit.ie or 01 402 4718.

Managed Learning Environment

Following the success of the first stage of the Managed Learning Environment pilot, we are now embarking on stage 2 of the project entitled “Learning Together”. There are eight schools involved in the project, four from the DISC programme and 4 from Northern Ireland. A class from each of the DISC schools will be partnered with a class in one of the schools in Northern Ireland.

The aim of this stage of the pilot is to encourage the collaborative aspect of the MLE to share education across the North and South of Ireland. We plan to link teachers and students from both communities via the MLE so they can work together to engage pupils and deliver educational material. The project also aims to educate pupils about life in their school/community (cultures, beliefs, history etc.) while exploring the use of ICT to engage and stimulate pupils to enhance their learning experience. As part of this stage of the project, DISC will also investigate the benefits and challenges of Virtual Learning Environments in primary and secondary education.

What will the pupils learn?
• Use of video conferencing to see and talk to their friends from their partnered school
• Use of discussion boards to post messages to their friends in a secure environment
• Develop research and communication skills
• Develop ICT skills – digital photography, word processing, multimedia presentations etc.
• Learn about life in their partnered school’s community, their cultures, and beliefs.

Useful Links

http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/

'Ideas to Inspire' is a collection of collaborative presentations, which offer a large number of ideas for engaging lesson activities. They are the result of the collaboration of teachers from all around the world.

http://www.cesi.ie

The Computer Education Society of Ireland (CESI) is an association of practicing teachers from primary, post primary and third level with the common interest of using ICT to benefit teaching and learning. They also have a very helpful and informative Google group operating.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie

Learn all about Ireland's environment in a range of articles and activities on history, geography and science.