ICT project- Anime scrapbook

 So I've been thinking about how I can include my blog with my scrapbook. In the scrapbook I was going to have a character on some of the pages explaning the page and my feelings. But instead I've decided to have this as th blog part. So my project topic is anime and manga. Manga artists like to have a little or 'chibi' character to talk about their feelings behind the manga and give a personal message, so heres my little character mochi! She's going to tell all about my project and the ideas and facts behind the pages. There are also some bunny drawings in the actual scrapbook so keep a look out!

What is education? Guest lecture 7

Today we had a lecture on collaboration vs. competition in education from Olvive Hopker who is head of planning and development in our university. She talked to us about why the governbment is pushing for more collaberation of education settings. It covers:

• Higher education
• Local education authorities
• Further education/ 6th forms
• Schools

She also spoke to us about current collaboration happening in universities:

• External examinar
• Validation panel membership
• Research projects
• Library access
• Purchasing
• ICT
• Academic development
• Quality and standards assurance

She then moved onto the benefits of collaboration:

• Shared experise and knowledge
• Greater efficiency
• Cost saving
• Greater effectiveness
• Enhance reputation
• Value of 'external eye'
• Collaboration groupings flexible

And the benefits of competition:

• Promotes efforts to do better
• Provides choice of alternative products/services

She also moved on to speak about the benefits of small and large universities and they change with collaboration.
I found this lecture useful as I didn't know much about collaboration of education settings and what it means. However there wasn't much discussion and it was hard to take in.

What is education? Guest lecture 4

We had another lecture with Steve Gullick where we had a recap of some the things we had discussed in the previous lecture and discussed some other points about govenors. He spoke to us more about the role of goveners and how their responsibilities are different from the head teachers. The goveners deal with long term issues while the head teacher is responsible for the day to day running of the school. He also told us that schools all need a govener in charge of special educational needs in the school who will work with the school senco. Steve also spoke about the staff dispinary commitee which all schools have. It usually consisits of three members who will give four possible verdicts when discipling staff:

1. No charge
2. 1st written warning
3. Last written warning
4. Dismissal

We also discussed the issue concerning training for govenors. It is not compulsory and we discussed our views on this, Steve expressed that it should be compulsory.
I enjoyed having recap lecture as it made me understand more about govenors and we had good discussion and feedback during this lecture on our own views.

Personal objects with Suzie

We had an insteresting session with Suzie where we had to bring in 5 personal objects with meaning to us. I didn't know what to expect from this session but I brought my objects along. Firstly in this session we looked at an artist called Tracy Emin. We looked at her contemporary pieces of art and looked at the meaning behind them. I liked her art and thought the pieces were showing very personal parts of her and liked that she us shown these things to the world. After analysing her art we then had to go into groups and arrange our objects with meaning. We then told Suzie about the objects and talked to the class about one. I enjoyed this session and I can see how it links in with the assignment as it all focuses on a 'sense of place'. I am now looking forward to starting my project.

What is education? Guest lecture 3

This what is eduction guest lecture was taken by Steve Gullick. He spoke to us about governors and governing bodies and their roles. he told us that governors are unpaid volunteers which is something I didn't know. We then discussed the 2 main views on what governors should be, which are; that they should be quailified proffesionals in their area of governing in order to be a governor, or that they should just be people who have interest or a 'stake' in the school and want it to do well. Governors are currently people who have a stake in the school and do not have to be quailified in any way to be a governor. We were then given handouts with the agenda of a typical governing body meeting,roles of the governing body which are the legally required ones and the makeup of a governing body listed. We were also told that governors have to have meetings at least once a term. 
I appreciated this lecture as I found it very informing about things I didn't know about governors. I think it is important that people in our area of learning know about governors as they are an important part of school education. I thought that Steve was a good speaker but I found it more difficult to concentrate on what he was saying because he was reading from notes not a powerpoint. But overall and important and useful lecture.

What is education? Guest lecture 2

Our second guest lecturer for our what is education module was Russell Grigg.Russell spoke to us about Estyn. Estyn is the organisation which inspects quaility and standards in education in Wales. Estyn inspects:

• Nursery, primary, secondary, independent and special schools
• Pupil refferal units
• Further education
• Adult community learning
• Local authority education services for children and young people
• Teacher education and training
• Work based learning
• Careers and companies
• Offender learning

Estyn also:

• Provide advice to the Welsh Assembly Government on quality and standards 

• Promote the spread of good practice in education and training

Estyn then provides reports on instatutions and themtaic reports.
The judgements Estyn make in their reports are:

• Excellent
• Good
• Adequate
• Unsatisfactory

Although I found this lecutre hard to take in, in places, I knew how important the subject was. I liked that we are having the oppourtunity to learn about important topics in education such as inspections. I also liked that Russell did encourage us to interact through asking us questions about our own views and opinions on the topic.

Switching teachers

This week we had our first lesson with Suzie who is taking us for the non-ICT part of the module. She introduced herself to us and we all introduced ourselves to her and told her a bit about our experiences with art. We looked at meanings behind images and what the creators might be trying to show. We looked at logos and branding, we analysed 'The scream' and we watched a short video which was meant to convey a message about war. Although I think I will enjoy my time with suzie I'm still not sure where this module is going but I guess I'll have to see.

Creative writing

The images in the posts below are two examples of websites we looked at where we could change words into different types of images. Mandy showed us a slideshow of different ways of writing and presenting words such as graffiti and writing on different things. We then used some different websites to create our own creative writing, I used graffiti and text image, creating a graffiti version of my name and a picture of the video game character link using his name. I enjoyed trying out the sites and found the different forms of writing interesting.

Movie maker

In last weekes ICT seminar we had to create a video on something to do with our university. My group was given 'The place'. We used a basic video recorder and walked around our typical route in the campus. We then put the video clips on the computer and edited them using windows movie maker. We made sure all the clips were in order and then sped the clips up x3 and we added music. We used 'Chase' to go with the speed of the video. We then saved it in move maker. In this seminar we are publishing the video to the computer and presenting the video to the class.

This will be our last seminar with Mandy, I am interested to see what we will be doing for the rest of year and I am looking forward to doing our ICT projects.

Nativity activities

In our last lesson before Christmas we looked at different ways of repersenting the same thing. We did the nativity as a theme and all had to repersent it in different ways. I did a sonnet with a partner. We then posted all of the ways we repersented the nativity story on our wiki page. I enjoyed it and enjoyed seeing how people used the techniques they were given to repersent it.  

Reading week

We had one week off University for reading week where we had to go away and do tasks set by lecturers. For ICT we had to create and update a wiki on pbworks, my group is doing education of the past ten years and we have a folder and individual pages on pbworks of our own wiki. I found this wiki easy to edit and use. 

Reflective learning articles and assignment

Recently we were asked to look at 2 reflective learning articles. One was a simple article which outlined the usefulness of reflective learning, which I found a useful article as it was so easy to understand and read and I felt it outlined reflective learning really well. The other article we were asked to look at was more in depth and included theories on reflective learning and how it helps us. I found the theories interesting and liked their approach to how reflective learning should be carried out and how it helps develop our own learning. 

We were also given information on our assignment. The assignment was not what I was expecting but now I'm actually looking forward to it. I like that in the assignment we will be isong ICT application as well as doing artwork. My topic idea is to do the mind and inner self because I have alot of ideas as to what I can include and people to use as insperation. I think generally I will enjoy doing the assignment and I am looking forward to getting started.

Reflective learning mindmap

This was my own reflective learning mindmap created using bubbl.us

Reflective learning and other blogs

Today we reviewed what refelective learning is about and more about what we would be doing with our blogs/reflective diary. As a group we gave ideas for a mind map on reflective learning and shared ideas. We also looked at educational blogs and chose what we liked.


One I like is classroom 2 kids on edu blogs. http://classroom2kids.edublogs.org/


I like this blog as an educational blog because it is a by a teacher blogging things they have been doing in the classroom with the children and have been sharing ideas of classroom activities. The blog is also reguarly updated and contains links to other educational blogs.