This is my second post on the subject of Digital Leader's and follows on from this one here where I outlined the rationale behind setting up a school Digital Leader system and how we went about setting up a successful Digital Leader system at Our Lady's. The purpose of this post is to explain how we've now recruited a new team for next year and to highlight some of the changes that we've made to the application process and roles for next year.

At the start of this half term, we began to plan for next year by discussing how we could make the Digital Leader system even better. During Digital Leader club myself and the current Digital Leader's all agreed that the process for applying for next year could be improved. For next years applicants, we agreed that the process should be more rigorous and reflect the same kind of system as when applying for a job in the 'real world.' We decided that we would create an application form for children to apply and we would then choose candidates for interview. We all agreed on what the application form questions should be and then one of the Digital Leaders created this form using Google Forms. Once finished, I then embedded this on our Digital Leader blog and we promoted this through assemblies, posters displayed around school and advertising through our main school blog and Twitter feed.

We also agreed that another way to make the system better next year, would be if each Digital Leader had a clearly defined role. We talked about some of the areas that would be beneficial to focus on next year and eventually came up with the following specific job roles;

1. Social media coordinator - responsible for collecting information, photos and videos to tweet about and ensuring that the school blog is kept up to date. Also responsible for helping me with tweeting links to blog posts that have been made.
2. E-safety leader -  responsible for writing an action plan of how we can improve awareness of e-safety across school and having specific responsibility for preparing presentations and workshops for pupils and parents. Also responsible for designing surveys/forms to embed on the school blog and assisting me with reviewing the 360 degree safe e-safety review tool.
3. Code Club blogger - responsible for setting up and managing a new Code Club blog. Ideally a current Code club member or Computer Science/coding enthusiast with good writing and presentation skills and previous experience of setting up and writing their own blogs.
4. Digital Leader blogger - responsible for managing and improving the Digital Leader blog, promoting it and looking at ways of creating links with other schools (possibly through Quadblogging).
5. Club coordinator - responsible for running a regular dinner time club and organising and promoting regular 'Kidsmeet' sessions.
6. iPad leader - responsible for maintaining the school iPads (e.g. by organising apps and clearing photos and videos from the camera role at the end of each half term). Also responsible for training up staff with using the iPads to enhance teaching and learning.

Whilst waiting for pupils to apply, we spent time during Digital Leader club planning the interview day. We agreed on a list of 8 questions (building on from those that were on the application form) and each one chose a question to ask on the interview day.

Once the application deadline had passed, we then spent a session looking at all the applications. We eventually choose the ten best one's for interview. Each Digital Leader chose a candidate and designed an invitation which they then gave to them.

On the interview day itself we timetabled each interviewee with a specific time slot and I discussed with the current Digital Leader's beforehand the basics of conducting a successful interview. I was really impressed with how they all took on board the advice they were given and they were careful to conduct the interviews in a professional but friendly and sympathetic way. The took the process really seriously; each one making detailed notes about each child and assigning them an overall mark out of 10!

Later on, during Digital Leader club, we compared notes and scores and eventually agreed on the final six. We were keen to ensure that those that hadn't been selected didn't take the news too badly, so each current Digital Leader typed up a personalised note for each child that had been interviewed. Within it they sensitively informed them if they had been chosen or not and thanked them for their time. These were then printed out and given to each child that had taken part. The new Digital Leader's that have been selected will be unveiled during assembly tomorrow!

Overall, I feel that the process of recruiting the new Digital Leader team this year was much more successful. Both the current Digital Leader's and those selected for interview gained so much from the experience and I'm really looking forward to getting started with them in September.

If you would like help or support with setting up a successful Digital Leader system in your school, please don't hesitate to get in touch here.

1. iMovie (Trailer mode)

iMovie iPad app has a trailer mode which is really simple to use and can be used for a variety of different purposes.  It lets you create a range of movie style trailers in different styles. You can customise the studio logos, cast names and credits and add and adjust videos and photos using content from your photo library. As it's coming towards the end of the year how about asking your Year 6's to make movie trailers to advertise the end of year production like these one's here? Or how about asking Year 6 pupils to work collaboratively to create the end of year leavers video using iMovie. iMovie trailers are so simple, they could be used right across key stage one or two. This trailer here for example was made by Year 2 pupils as part of a Digital Leader project.

      2. Book Creator

Book Creator iPad app could be used by pupils as a way of presenting their knowledge in any subject or topic area. The app is extremely easy to use. When creating a page, pupils can add in text, photo's, videos and even sound recordings. There is also a tool to add in shapes and a pen tool to annotate images. Pupils can format their pages by changing the colour and even the paper type. It is also really easy to make text stand out by changing the colour and adjusting other formatting features. Older, more advanced pupils can add in hyperlinks in order to link their text or images to content found online. Once finished, you can either publish finished books to iBooks or share them as a PDF or video file. Click this link here to see the kind of thing your pupils could easily create.

     3. Green Screen by DoInk

Green Screen iPad app by DoInk is such a fantastic (and cheap) way of creating professional looking Green screen images or videos. All you need is a green background, your iPad and some imagination! I use a large green piece of cloth for projects involving pupils and green card or backing paper when making smaller projects (for example, when combining it with the  I Can Animate app to make stop motion animations). This tutorial I made here shows you just how easy the Green Screen app is to set up and use.

Here are some examples of the kind of thing that can easily be created;

• Great Fire of London News Report by Year 2 (edited in iMovie). Watch here.
• We are TV Chefs by Year 1 (again edited using the iMovie app). Watch here.
• Stop Motion animation (this was filmed using the I Can Animate app and was then imported into the Green Screen app). Watch here.

      4. Tellagami
Explain Everything iPad app is an extremely versatile and flexible app that can be used for lots of different purposes within the classroom. It is basically a screen-casting app which allows narrated recordings of the iPad screen to be exported and then shared as a video. This way, pupils can create their own videos to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a particular topic or concept (as in this video here). The app can also be used to create animations such as this one here.
Morfo iPad app can be used to to bring any image saved to the camera roll to life! Basically pupils upload an image and then line up the facial features. Once they have done this, they then record themselves talking in the role of that particular character. In the example below, Year 1 were doing a topic on super heroes. First, they started by writing a persuasive speech to say why they should be awarded 'super hero of the year!' Next, they found an image of that super hero online, uploaded into the app and transformed themselves into that character by overlaying their face, eyes, mouth and nose. They then recorded their 30 second persuasive speech. The finished work can be viewed here (Note: To embed the work on the blog, I created a poster in Comic Life and then put the videos into Comic Life using the app ThingLink). Apps such as Morfo can provide a really fun and motivating way of helping develop pupils speaking skills.
Shadow Puppet iPad app enables pupils to create their own custom videos. There are lots of similar apps that I have used that do the same thing such as Adobe Voice (now called Adobe Spark Video) and Videolicious. In my opinion however, this is the easiest one to use and I have even had pupils as young as Reception class creating fantastic photo story videos with minimal assistance. Using the app, pupils simply import their images (or videos) and then record narration to accompany them. They can also add in music, draw on the screen and even add emoji stickers. I have had pupils using the app to create videos that re-tell a story that they have been studying class and also as a way of them showcasing their understanding within topics that we have been covering. In Reception class we used the app as part of a Computing lesson, where we looked at algorithms. In pairs, pupils took photos of themselves acting out the different steps involved in brushing their teeth and then recorded themselves explaining the steps involved. This also tied into work that they had been doing in literacy on instructional writing. You can view the videos they made here.

As a Lead School for Computing, I was recently invited by Computing At School (CAS) to submit a case study highlighting best practice within the teaching of Computing. I though I would share a Year Four lesson that I taught recently, in which we explored the concept of how the internet works...

Background

The lesson is a Year Four lesson which covers the learning objective: ‘to understand how messages are passed along networks.’ The lesson covers the Key Stage 2 objective from the Computing Programme of Study, which states that pupils should be taught to; “understand computer networks including the internet; how they can provide multiple services, such as the world wide web; and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration.” The unit forms one of three Computer Science based units that the pupils study in Year Four. The lesson outlined here is lesson two of a six lesson unit, in which pupils ultimately make their own ebook about computer networks. The lesson builds on the work covered in lesson one, where pupils took part in a guided tour of the schools local-area network system and held a ‘question and answer session’ with the schools IT field technician. During the lesson, pupils take part in a practical, role-play activity, whereby they simulate a computer network system in action. In doing so, pupils are required to demonstrate an understanding of the different component parts of a wide-area network system (or 'WAN' for short).

Prior Learning

Although having not previously covered the concept of computer networks in any great detail, the pupils did bring some prior knowledge to the lesson, through the work that they covered in Unit 3.6 of our Computing scheme of work. Within this unit, pupils looked at how the internet works, particular focussing on the use of search engines. I was able to draw upon parts of this unit, by encouraging pupils to reflect on some of this prior knowledge.

 The Lesson

diagram of a local-area network ('LAN') system

'Placemat consensus' Kagan structure

First, I gave every 3 out of 4 pupils an ‘IP address card’ and 1 out of every 4 pupils a ‘switch’ card. Pupils given an IP address cards, were then also given three message slips each. I then asked pupils to sit on the table coinciding with the first number on their slip (for example, IP address 3.2 sat on table 3). I also ensured that there was one ‘switch’ on each table, as in the image below.

table arrangement

IP address cards and 'switch' cards

data card

'router' card

Once all the pupils were sat in the correct place, I then explained that the person with the ‘switch’ card on each table would be acting as the ‘network switch’ and that the other children would be representing the computers (in essence, forming a small, local-area network within their table). I explained that the class as a whole would be representing the internet.

Next, I asked each ‘computer’ (i.e. every pupil with an IP address number), to think up a short message. Once ‘computers’ had composed their short message on individual whiteboards, I then instructed them to split up their message into three separate parts. I did this by first modelling how to write part of a message on each of the three separate slips, as in the image below.

Once the data slips had been filled in, I then instructed ‘computers’ to pass these to the ‘switch’ on their table. ‘Switches’ were then instructed to sort these data slips into piles, by referencing the first digit of the IP address. To assist them, each 'switch’ was given a pack of envelopes, so they could sort and organise each pile of messages into separate ‘packets’. ‘Switches’ were then told to write the IP address of the intended recipient on the front of their envelope.

Once sorted into relevant piles, I explained that the next task was to pass each envelope to the relevant other ‘Switch’ on each table. Here, a few pupils, who had not been assigned a role (due to the logistics of the number of pupils in the class) played the part of ‘Routers’. Their job was to deliver these messages to the next intended 'Switch'.

Next, once switches had received all the data packets for their table, they were then instructed to pass these on to the intended recipients within their table.

Finally, recipients were then instructed to use the information presented within the ‘To IP address’ and ‘From IP address’ fields, to reassemble their message into the correct sequence. Once they had done this, they then wrote down their message on their sheet.

1. IP addresses are much longer than the ones used in the activity they did. 
2. The switch for the sending network hardly ever communicates directly with the switch for the destination network (instead, packets of data go through many different routers between the sender’s switch and the recipient’s switch).

Impact

Next Steps

• To ensure that each IP address receives a message, the main activity could be organised so that each IP address is matched up with another (for example, all the IP addresses starting with a '1' could write a message for all the IP addresses starting with a '2'). 
• Within the main activity, I might ask each IP address to name themselves after a particular character in order to fit a particular topic/theme (for example, IP address 1.3 could represent ‘Harry Potter’s’ computer, IP address 1.4 could be ‘Hermione Granger’s’ computer etc.) These could be listed beforehand for pupils to see. Pupils could then choose a character and write their message as if it were an email message intended for them. 
• To stretch the higher ability pupils, they could be given more than 3 message slips to make the activity more challenging. 
• As an extension and if time permits, pupils could repeat the activity by responding to the messages they’ve received.

What are Digital Leaders?

                                  

As a treat, I sometimes let my eldest son go on the iPad. Like most three year olds he loves playing on games featuring his favourite TV characters and whilst I must admit that some of these games are very good, I decided that, in readiness for starting nursery school in September, I would make some games that had more of a specific, educational purpose, for him to play on instead! TinyTap, is an app that I know very well, having used it within my teaching and through demonstrating it to colleagues at training days and table hosting at events such as Speed learning. However, having not taught in early years for any sustained period of time recently, I first decided to refresh my memory of the early learning goals, in order to be clear about what is expected of him by the end of EYFS. I then decided to make some games that would help him to practice skills within these key areas. Here is a video showing you how I made a game, using dinosaurs, to help him with the early learning goal:

I’m a big fan of using Kagan Cooperative learning structures in my teaching. Kagan Structures are simple, step-by-step instructional strategies, designed to increase pupil engagement and cooperation. This video explains more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-yzgJtgVrg.

In the past, I have incorporated a number of these structures into elements of my lessons. I have found them to be a really useful teaching tool for promoting communication and cooperation, especially amongst the more passive, less engaged pupils!

There are over 200 Kagan structures. Here are just a few of my favourite one's with information about how I've used them within my teaching of Computing.

Note: I have pupils sat in table groups of 4 with each pupil 'labelled' as in the diagram below. Each of my tables has a number. I use the Kagan Spinner iPad app and this enables me to call on either;

• a specific table, 
• a specifically numbered pupil from each table or 
• a specific partner (either partner 'A' or partner 'B').