Outstanding ICT - 22nd May 2017
Welcome to Issue 11 of Outstanding ICT. As we wait for the results of the Prodigy Learning Four Nations MOS Competition qualification, I'll try and focus on this week's issue!
In My Best Lesson we explore the use of real users of technology to provide pupils with real-world understanding. In Office 365 Support we revisit Delve, but this time we look at the Delve phone app. We end by wondering about the use and future of the Windows phone in Classroom Apps.
My Best Lesson - A TRIP TO THE SEASIDE
When I was head of Design and Technology I put together a short course on Control Technology for year 9. This was part of a carousel and I wanted each 6 week unit to end with a real life experience. After a tip-off from a colleague I contacted our local rail network who, true to the tip-off, offered a day out on their trains to schools. They were happy to arrange for me to take pupils out six times during the year which allowed me to make this a fixed part of the year 9 course.
I spent an afternoon with the C2C guys who took me though the "tour" and I went away to develop a course workbook so that pupils came away with the important learning points.
The agreed itenery was something like this...
- Catch Westbound train from Pitsea to Upminster and talk about what a signal box was and what they expected to see.
- Tour of state-of-the-art signal box at Upminster including server rooms for real and simulated/training line control; the dark control room with its consoles and operators watching the dots representing trains moving up and down the line; then every pupil had a go on the simulator/training console and were invited to try and make trains crash.
- Eastbound train to Shoeburyness sidings. On the way the signalling system was explained by the C2C team and workbook completed.
- Lunch in the park next to the sidings.
- At Shoeburyness sidings, tour of parked train. Each pupil had a go in the driver's seat and sounded the horn while the C2C guide talked them through the controls and the Windows 95 PC under the dashboard that controlled the train, then went off exploring listing all the input and output devices they could find in the train.
- Westbound, back to Pitsea, Q&A with C2C team prompted by worksheets.
You know, I have never approached a company for support and been turned down. This was an informative and delightful day out that did much to embed pupil understanding of the use of technology. I'm not sure why we don't do it more often.
365 Support - DELVE ON THE GO
I've written before about Delve and about how good it is at working out what's current and what is going on around you. What I didn't mention is that Microsoft provide a free phone app that gives you access to what is going on when you are out and about.
The image on the left shows the main features, but bear in mind that each section of the app swipes right to show more Delve findings.
This configuration starts with your line manager. Selecting her or him opens his or her Delve profile so you can see what team documents they are working on and what emails they have sent to the team.
Below this are the documents you have been working on recently and then a section that shows the whole team. Again, selecting them gives you more detail on their activities. Options are available to email, phone or skype each of them.
The last section trawls through documents in your organisation and presents those that you are associated with.
Delve is a really useful app that has the potential to change the way you work. Just spend a little time thinking about your order of operations when you look at your phone, or logon to a computer, and ask yourself if Delve gets you where you wanted to do faster. You might be surprised.
Classroom Apps - WINDOWS MOBILE
With the possible, but unlikely, Microsoft announcement this week about the future of the Windows phone and the much awaited (by me) potential reveal of the Surface Phone I've been looking aound the internet to see what my options are. If the announcement doesn't happen I need to decide what to do about the overdue upgrade of my Lumia 830.
I love my Windows phone, I've had iPhones and a couple of HTC Androids, but I have to say, my Windows phones have managed to integrate themselves perfectly into my work and personal life. But if you read the reviews much is made of how this doesn't happen and how many familiar and essential Android and Apple apps are not available on Windows. That may be true, but the truth is I do not feel that I am missing out much. So I thought I would share my phone desktop on the assumption that you are likely to be unfamiliar with such a thing.
(Background image (Swan Upping) produced by my very talented illustrator daughter, https://www.louiseboulter.co.uk/. )
The reason I shared my phone now, is when writing the Delve article above, I had a little epiphany in the realisation that I was taking for granted a kind of seamless integration that users of other platforms could not experience, or at least have trouble setting-up. My Office 365 apps sit comfortably alongside my other apps on my phone and allow me to view, edit, share, monitor, interrogate, arrange, create, communicate, collaborate and co-ordinate as easily as if I were sat in front of my PC. If you are in an Office 365 school that means you have access to your classes and their work in a way that I do not think can be achieved on any other platform.
I am not sure if there is a school anywhere that provides Windows Phones as standard issue, but I'd love to get my hands on it if there was, as the possibilities in a school setting are endless. Come on Microsoft! Make the announcement!
That's the free content, here comes the advert!
If you would like to find out how I might support your school in embedding the use of IT, please feel free to contact me. Here's my card...
