http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk Information, news, blog and podcast from Wolverhampton CLC. Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:39:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Spring Term was very busy at the CLC. In the shortest term of the year, the CLC worked with 12 Primary schools and 5 Secondary schools on a variety of projects. Primary students took part in a series of visits to West Park where they engaged in history, environmental awareness ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/04/02/spring-term-review/ The CLC has dedicated training, conference and meeting facilities available to hire. Our facilities are available to book by Business, Local Authority and Community users. Full details of what is available, including a promotional video showcasing our facilities, are online now in the "Facilities" section. http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/03/31/training-conference-and-meeting-facilities/ The Learning Studio, the City Learning Centre's main teaching space for our work with schools, has been transformed during the Spring Term. The new design features: Five large tables, purpose-built to each house six PCs and two 24" iMacs Completely flexible desk designs. Each PC is hidden within the desk, and can ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/03/31/clc-learning-studio-transformed/ Today, I’m working with Year 11 students from Moreton Community School on a web design project. During the project, students will learn how to create a website using HTML for structure and CSS for styling. We will be using FrontPage for this project, as this is the software chosen by ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/03/18/moreton-community-school-web-design-project-day-1-resources/ On Wednesday and Thursday last week, I worked with Year 9 students from Deansfield High School to create soundscapes based around three conflicts in the 20th Century. Students created audio diaries for front-line soldiers on the Western Front in World War I, the D-Day landings in World War II and ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/03/16/deansfield-war-soundscapes/ Today, I’m working with Year 11 students from Pendeford Business and Enterprise College on a web design project. During the project, students will learn how to create a website using HTML for structure and CSS for styling. A presentation, links and ideas for the session can be found in the ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/03/06/pendeford-web-design-session-6th-march-2008/ From Wednesday to Friday last week, three groups of Year 8 students from St. Peter’s CE Collegiate School visited the CLC to learn how to use GarageBand as both a music and podcasting tool. The students spent the morning using the loops in GarageBand and MIDI keyboards to create ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/03/03/st-peter%e2%80%99s-music-and-podcasting-project-session-3-podcasts/ From Wednesday to Friday last week, three groups of Year 8 students from St. Peter’s CE Collegiate School visited the CLC to learn how to use GarageBand as both a music and podcasting tool. The students spent the morning using the loops in GarageBand and MIDI keyboards to create an original ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/03/03/st-peter%e2%80%99s-music-and-podcasting-project-session-2-podcasts/ From Wednesday to Friday this week, three groups of Year 8 students from St. Peter's CE Collegiate School are visiting the CLC to learn how to use GarageBand as both a music and podcasting tool. The students will spend the morning using the loops in GarageBand and MIDI keyboards to create ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/02/28/st-peters-music-and-podcasting-project-session-1/ This podcast was created by four groups of Year 11 students from Moseley Park Technology College and is based around the poem “Vultures” by Chinua Achebe. It explores the themes of the poem, and is aimed at supporting GCSE English students studying the poem for their forthcoming examinations. The four ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/02/25/moseley-park-poetry-podcast-vultures/ This podcast was created by a group of Year 11 students from Moseley Park Technology College and is based around the poem “Night of the Scorpion” by Nissim Ezekiel. It explores the themes of the poem, and is aimed at supporting GCSE English students studying the poem for their forthcoming ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/02/25/moseley-park-poetry-podcast-night-of-the-scorpion/ This podcast was created by a group of Year 11 students from Moseley Park Technology College and is based around the poem “Limbo” by Edward Brathwaite. It explores the themes of the poem, and is aimed at supporting GCSE English students studying the poem for their forthcoming examinations. Remember you can ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/02/25/moseley-park-poetry-podcast-limbo/ This podcast was created by a group of Year 11 students from Moseley Park Technology College and is based around the poem “The Island Man” by Grace Nichols. It explores the themes of the poem, and is aimed at supporting GCSE English students studying the poem for their forthcoming examinations. Remember ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/02/25/moseley-park-poetry-podcast-the-island-man/ This podcast was created by a group of Year 11 students from Moseley Park Technology College and is based around the poem "Blessing" by Imtiaz Dharker. It explores the themes of the poem, and is aimed at supporting GCSE English students studying the poem for their forthcoming examinations. Remember you can ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2008/02/25/moseley-park-poetry-podcast-blessing/ The CLC staff would like to wish all of our schools, and their pupils and teachers, a very Happy Christmas. We look forward to working with you again in 2008. The Autumn Term has been very busy at the City Learning Centre. Students from 7 Secondary Schools, 21 Primary Schools, ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/12/19/seasons-greetings-from-the-clc/ During the Autumn Term, two groups of Year 10 GCSE Art students from Colton Hills Community College and The King's School visited the CLC for three-day digital photography projects. Some of the imagery created by the students from both schools was stunning. Here's a showcase of some of the images created ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/12/10/digital-imaging-showcase-autumn-term-2007/ During the second and third days of the project, Year 10 GCSE Art students from Colton Hills Community School visited the urban centre of Wednesfield to take photos around the theme of "Natural and Manmade". Upon returning to the CLC, the students were shown a variety of techniques for improving their ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/12/10/colton-hills-digital-photography-project-days-2-and-3-5th-6th-dec-2007/ For the next three days, I'm working with Year 10 students from Colton Hills Community School on a digital photography project. We will be looking at the technical side of digital photography (shutter speed, aperture, using focus lock, depth of field) and at ideas for effective composition (e.g. the "Rule ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/12/04/colton-hills-community-school-digital-photography-project-day-1-4th-dec-2007/ From the 20th - 22nd Nov, three groups of Year 7 students from Smestow Specialist Sports College attended sessions at the CLC as part of their Citizenship / PSHE programme of work. During the sessions, students participated in a variety of activities - mindmapping, using the voting systems ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/12/03/smestow-y7-kar2ouche-respecting-diversity-20th-22nd-nov-2007/ For the next three days, I'm working with a group of Year 10 GCSE Art students from Wednesfield High on a digital art/animation project. The students will be using digital photographs taken in Wolverhampton City Centre to create a short film based around the concept of a journey. Here is the ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/27/wednesfield-high-school-digital-artanimation-project-day-1-27th-nov-2007/ On the 24th January 2008, the CLC is hosting a hands-on Open Day for Wolverhampton schools to see the dye sublimation printing systems distributed to UK schools by iSub Education. Dye sublimation is a new and exciting printing process that allows you to print onto a wide variety of substances, ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/26/isub-open-day-24th-january-2008/ On Monday afternoon, I participated in a session at the CLC on the ongoing transformation of the Key Stage 3 curriculum. I led a session on using technology to enhance learning and teaching. Lindsay Coleman, Secondary Headteacher Consultant, delivered a session on current eLearning initiatives in Wolverhampton. Finally, Rebecca Orszulan ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/23/key-stage-3-transformation-session-resources/ Over the last three days, a group of Year 10 boys from The King's School have been working with the CLC to learn basic and more advanced techniques in digital photography and image editing. The students took photographs around the Wednesfield area, and enhanced the images using image editing applications. You ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/16/stunning-digital-images-from-the-kings-school/ During the last day or our three day project, Year 10 students from The King's School learned more advanced image editing techniques - using the Channel Mixer to convert images into monochrome, and using and editing adjustment layers to affect how filters are applied to photographs. The students then used iMovie ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/16/the-kings-school-digital-photography-project-day-3-15th-nov-2007/ Today, Year 10 students from The King's School visited Wednesfield town centre and canal to take photos. Using the skills and techniques that the students had learned during Day 1 (modifying Depth of Field, ideas for composition, using focus lock etc.) the students worked in pairs to take a series ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/14/the-kings-school-digital-photography-project-day-2-14th-nov-2007/ For the next three days, I'm working with Year 10 students from The King's School on a digital photography project. We will be looking at the technical side of digital photography (shutter speed, aperture, using focus lock, depth of field) and at ideas for effective composition (e.g. the "Rule of ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/12/the-kings-school-digital-photography-project-day-1-13th-nov-2007/ While teaching Web Design to Key Stage 4 students, I've spent a lot of time this week with The Jing Project, TechSmith's new (free, for now) screen capturing software for both Windows and Mac. From their website: The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/09/the-jing-project-screencasting-made-simple/ Instructions to students During Day 3, the final day of the project, you will continue to refine your template using HTML and CSS. You will learn the following: How to use CSS to add borders, padding, and to change text alignment of parts of your design. How to add page titles and why ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/08/bilston-high-web-design-project-day-3-8th-november-2007/ Links Images of designs from day 1 are online on Flickr here. A Colour Scheme generator Instruction for the students During Day 2 of the project, you will start to design their own website from scratch. Here are main stages of the process: Creating a folder structure for the website Designing a logo for the site. Creating ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/06/bilston-high-web-design-project-day-2-7th-november-2007/ Over the next three days, I'm working with Year 10 students from Bilston High School on a web design project. During the project, students will learn how to create a website using HTML for structure and CSS for styling. A presentation, links and ideas from the sessions can be found ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/06/bilston-high-web-design-project-day-1-6th-november-2007/ As I'm working this week with a group of Year 10 students from Bilston High on a three day web design course, I thought I'd take the opportunity to collect together resources to support the teaching of web design to Key Stage 3/4 students (age 11 - 16). My approach to ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/05/web-design-resources/ Wikipedia is a great (OK, unbelievably incredible) resource, but as anyone who uses it regularly knows, not all of the content is entirely suitable for educational use, either because it is more adult in nature, or too complex or expansive to unpick for school use. Now we have the 2007 Schools ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/04/wikipedia-for-schools/ During Day 2 of their space project, Year 9 students from The Northicote School participated in the following activities: A research / analysis exercise based on the Moon Landing "hoax" (the idea that the moon landings in the late 1960s / early 1970s were faked and were filmed in a Hollywood ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/01/the-northicote-school-space-2-day-project-day-2-31st-oct-2007/ On 31st Oct. 2007, as part of a 2-day project on space and space travel, Year 9 students from The Northicote School participated in a video link-up with Dr. Matthew Kenworthy, an astronomer working at the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA. During the interview, students asked Dr. Kenworthy about ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/11/01/the-northicote-school-speak-to-dr-matthew-kenworthy/ Today, I'm working with Year 9 students from The Northicote School on the first day of a two-day project focusing around Space and Space Travel. During our first day we are looking at the following topics: What is space? How far away is space? How big is space? The distance of ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/30/the-northicote-school-space-2-day-project-day-1-30th-oct-2007/ One of my favourite applications for Mac OS X, Comic Life, has just been released for Windows XP / Vista. Comic Life allows students to create comics, how-tos or picture albums by combining together digital photos with speech and thought bubbles, text, and authentic comic-style layouts and fonts. It's great ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/19/comic-life-for-windows-out-now/ Yesterday, Year 3 children from Springvale Primary School visited the CLC to create Christmas Cards ready for the festive season. Working with the CLC's Artist in Residence, Doreen, the young learners looked at the history of the Christmas Card, then modelled and created characters and sets to form a Christmas ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/17/springvale-primary-school-christmas-card-creation-day-oct-16th/ On Monday, students from Green Park School visited the CLC to take part in a Fire Safety Day. In the morning, members of the education team from Wolverhampton Fire Service gave demonstrations and advice for fire safety in the home. They showed students how to deal with a fire, how ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/17/green-park-school-fire-safety-day-oct-15th-2007/ An article on the CLC Blog has received a mention in a recent edition of the Guardian. In the "Critics' Choice" section of the Education Guardian on September 18th, Jim Merrett highlighted information on the web related to podcasting in schools. He picked out our article "Tips for a successful ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/17/podcasting-article-gets-guardian-mention/ During the pre-conference workshops for Handheld Learning 2007 on Wednesday, I attended the session by Dan Sutch and Lyndsay Grant from FutureLab on their innovative pilot projects with handheld devices. One project they discussed, called MobiMissions, was based around students creating mini-games on their mobile phones, which they then shared ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/16/the-long-tail-in-education/ Last weekend I attended the NAACE Conference in London, and attended Doug Dickinson's "RUWeb2" presentation. He played a snippet from the following video, which challenges educators to rethink their views on education in a world of Web 2.0, mobile technologies, and rapid content creation and sharing: [flv:http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/pay_attention.flv 480 353] (Original video is ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/08/food-for-thought-learning-in-a-digital-age/ I've written before on the blog about the power of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) in allowing us to automatically receive new content from our favourite websites: RSS In Plain English Working with RSS Feeds For some time now, I've been using Google Reader in combination with iGoogle as my web homepage. This allows ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/06/the-web-your-way-yahoo-pipes/ Year 4 students from Grove Primary visited the CLC to take part in our Doctor Who Adventure Day. During the day, the students participated in a series of interactive activities: creative writing, mindmapping, problem-solving, and designing Egg Landers! The days culminate in an adventure game, written using Immersive Education's MissionMaker software, ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/05/doctor-who-adventure-day-grove-primary-school/ Some great links I've collected over the last couple of months: Picnik - online image editing Picnik is a fantastic online image-editing application. You can upload images from your computer, or pull images into Picnik from Flickr, Facebook or Picasa. It even allows you to search Flickr for photos from inside the ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/10/02/great-links-october-2007-picnik-zamzar-voicethread/ During the last three weeks, students from Years 7-10 at Wednesfield High and Parkfield High have visited the CLC to participate in the Wochr project, a collaborative project between the CLC and schools in Christchurch, New Zealand. The students have produced media - animations, podcasts and video - that reflect ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/09/26/wochr-project-sessions-wednesfield-high-and-parkfield-high/ Over the last two days, two groups of Year 7 students from Smestow Specialist Sports College have attended sessions at the CLC as part of their Citizenship / PSHE programme of work. During the sessions, students participated in a variety of activities - mindmapping, using the voting systems ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/09/26/smestow-respecting-diversity-days-24th-25th-sept-2007/ During September, five classes from Wolverhampton Primary Schools have enjoyed Doctor Who Adventure Days at the CLC. Students from Wood End, Moat House, Loxdale, Holy Rosary, and St. Bartholomews, have participated in a series of exciting activities in problem-solving, maths, literacy, mindmapping and design technology. The days culminate in an adventure game, ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/09/24/doctor-who-adventure-days-wood-end-moat-house-loxdale-holy-rosary-st-bartholomews-september-2007/ During the Autumn Term, the CLC is running a series of Doctor Who Adventure Days for Primary Age students from across the city. Using the context of the adventures of the mysterious Time Lord, students participate in a series of exciting activities in problem-solving, maths, literacy, mindmapping and design technology. The ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/09/14/the-doctor-has-landed-dr-who-adventure-days-at-the-clc/ The Wochr project links school students in Wolverhampton and in Christchurch, New Zealand. During September and October, Y8 - Y10 students from Wednesfield High and Parkfield High, and from two New Zealand schools, will create media - animation, film, podcasts and digital stories - that reflect upon their views of ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/09/12/wochrcom-wolverhampton-meets-christchurch-in-cyberspace/ During the Summer Term 2007, the City Learning Centre worked with the staff of Pendeford Business and Enterprise College to develop a new website for the school. The new site features integrated blog, podcast, news and gallery sections and a bespoke design. School staff can add and remove pages, images, ... http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/2007/09/10/new-pendeford-website-online/