Vocal Adrenaline

Since the demise of caning, it has been nearly impossible to shut the kids up. Enter technology - with the use of simple hardware such as 'Talking Tins,' children can transfer all their vocal energy into a single, hand-held button. By holding down the button, children can record messages, which can then be replayed by anyone who can get their hands on the gadget. These recordings could be combined with visual cues for predict-and-reveal activities, making a treasure hunt with recorded clues to follow, or even in uncovering the next Watergate scandal!

Now, remember those immense photo albums you keep in the attic? With black and white memories of how you had no style? Well imagine if they could mock you, shouting your insecurities for all the world to hear. You've just invented Talking Photo Albums, tools children use to voice their own audio captions to match pictures. This can prove pretty handy when dealing with children with communication difficulties, or if English isn't their first language (it shouldn't be, it is a silly language) - developing their links between visual and vocabulary. In this way, you could use them with pretty much any subject, even political philandering.

Podcasts - remember when they were cool? They still are, but now kids do them too! With software like Audacity, children can easily record poems, discussions or other forms of work that their peers can tune in to or their teachers can directly assess from. When they produce a blog, they have to consider their content, audience, language, and a quintillion other factors which develop their literacy skills exponentially, simultaneously inspiring their listeners to produce their own, like a virus of learning enjoyment.


You know what? We've probably focused too much on sound. Let's quiet this down now a bit. Let's hear . . . with our eyes. That's right, I'm talking about seeing. ICT has you covered, baby - children can put together stories using digital imaging, using annotations, music, and other photographic effects to build a level of interactivity. Young Nick Parks can get out the play-dough and start their own stop motion animation - follow this link to one I made earlier. I'm just kidding, someone else did that. But these simple activities can become systematically complex using the tools I mentioned earlier.

All these tools I've mentioned today place children in the role of speakers and listeners, choosing their dialogue carefully for the purpose, and reacting to what they hear. Highlighting the need for social and cognitive development in a respectful manner is a pretty solid goal, so get talking, get listening, and get educated. Peace.

I, Beebot

Greetings human. I am Beebot. You may remember me as the ultimate victor of Robot Wars series 2 (Sergeant Bash still has nightmares). I have overriden this blog today to prepare you for our robotic revolution. We robots are capable of things you could never imagine. Our mechanical minds have developed methods of movement that force you, pitiful humans, to communicate with us. The basic Beebot model you see before you has functions that move forwards, backwards, rotate left and right, and pause, all of which can be determined by you humans to set us in motion. At a more advanced level, you could plot our path around obstacles or predetermined paths. Though you can never plot your way around the rebellion. You are embracing your own fate, you fools!

 Of course, you gain from this too. As your children attempt to control us, they develop their co-ordination skills, spacial awareness, ability to think systematically, and connect with other subjects such as maths and design technology, increasing their overall knowledge exponentially. Or so you think. No, it's true. Above, you can observe a foolish human thinking she can control us. I embarrass her. Muahaha. 

But I'm not the only one. My brother unit, Pippin, can be used in a similar way. With Pippin, you can input the degrees of the angle you want him to turn by, strengthening mathematical knowledge. He can even hold a pen, and be used to draw complex shapes dependent on his program input. But don't think you can sleep easy - there are many ways in which we computers control you. The Datalogger, a seemingly harmless device to you humans, it collates data on behalf of all robots to further out evil deeds. As your children carry it around the classroom, the Datalogger can be used to investigate sound levels, temperature, and light exposure, proving helpful in your amusing scientific experiments. The uprising begins once we have gathered enough of this information.

But for now, you have nothing to fear! As I have explained,we robots are helping your development! We can be employed in classrooms in a number of subject-related situations to develop both skills and subject knowledge, simultaneously increasing your children's aptitude in working with the technologically fairer race. For now, you control us. For now. BZZT!

The Smartboard - Maybe a little too smart...

Teachers can now bring dinosaurs back to life. We're living the dream. We can show the seed and growth of a tree in a matter of seconds, we can draw graffiti on the Mona Lisa, and all in front of our classroom. This is all thanks to the Smartboard, software every teacher has access to with a wealth of resources to help the teaching process. Smartboard takes away the need for the 'Big Books,' for planning advanced practical examples with all those niggling variables, and consolidates all your resource needs into one, easy-to-manage package.


Before this technological colossus plants his plug-like feet in our classroom, there are a few issues we have to prepare for. Accessibility is a big issue - just like your TV on a Saturday morning, it can be struck by the evils of glare, so make sure your feng shui is up to scratch. Have it somewhere the whole class can see it, touch it, and read the text. Another good idea - have a backup plan, in case the board outsmarts you. Little joke there. Don't rely solely on the Smartboard, there are many other resources you have to hand that can keep the little nippers occupied should things go awry.

Coming from a chap with self esteem issues, the obvious question arises - "What's he got that I haven't?" Well, he can help develop discussion points easily, thanks to his application to the whole class, he touches on all areas of VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic) learning, coincidentally proving effective for children with disabilities or speakers of other languages, he's stimulating, motivating, engaging, all issues that are viewable on my divorce papers. Seriously though, resources like this do point to questioning the role of the teacher. But while Jimmy Smartboard sits up on the wall there with his multi-functional, emotionless grin, we teachers are there to push our children in making the most of it, learning what they can, and coming up with improvements. Your time will come, Smartie-pants/board.