Dunshaughlin CC- Global School of the Future

I have referred to Dunshaughlin CC is previous Blogs and today I had the good fortune of visiting their campus and meeting with Padraig Browne, Principal, and Janice Corrigan, Deputy Principal.  

I sensed an energy in the school that was exciting and very uplifting. While the building itself is fairly old and in need of upgrading, it showed me in very stark terms that it’s not the age of the building but the vision of the leadership team that can separate you from your contemporaries.

There is a palpable sense of excitement and passion in everyone you meet. You see a student body that walks through the corridors and between buildings with a confidence and sense of purpose that belies the surroundings. The school is due for a renovation in the next two years but they’re not waiting to capture and run with this special opportunity they’ve been given.

I’ll be working closely with them in the coming year and I look forward to sharing with you all the exciting and challenging projects we choose to do.Watch this space! 

MS IT Academy and the NI NHS

The Belfast School Technology Innovation Centre (STIC) has become the lead for the Microsoft IT Academy (ITA) programme in Northern Ireland.

Last year, working with our ITA partner,Prodigy, a series of initiatives and presentations took place through the STIC to showcase what the ITA had to offer and its benefits. Presentations were made to Schools and Community groups which resulted in the opening of 17 new IT Academies in NI.

As a result of these presentations, awareness of the programme was significantly raised in many sectors in the North. We were given the opportunity to give overview presentations to the Civil Service and other interested groups.

The Beeches Management Centre was one of the groups which showed a high level of interest in what the programme offered. Beeches “provide a range of management and organisational support, primarily for the Northern Ireland Health and Personal Social Services”.

As a result of several meetings, MS was invited to speak at their annual Essential ICT Skills Conference on Sept. 20^th.  Terry Killer, MS Skills Manager UK, was the presenter on the day. Terry was chosen because he has worked closely with the NHS in England and Wales. His presentation was extremely well received.

As a direct result of previous meetings and our participation at the conference, Beeches is submitting a proposal to Government for an ITA pilot to be run this year at two Beeches training sites. Final details will be worked out by the end of October.

The STIC will be responsible for coordinating and facilitating all engagement with both Prodigy and Beeches throughout the pilot if the proposal from Beeches is approved. 

Grannying-Does it happen where you are?

We may or may not have a unique situation here on the “little island of Ireland”. Because of the proximity of schools to the borders between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, there has been a “grey” area around understanding where children can enrol in the school of their choice. The term of “Grannying” implies (in this case) that students living in Donegal, Ireland are using their grandparents address in Northern Ireland in order to secure places in the schools of their choice. This has been a practice that has gone on for years.

Recently, 3 students were enrolled in St. Cecelia’s College in Londonderry/Derry in the Northwest corner of NI.  I can understand why any parent would want to send their child to St. Cecelia’s because I have worked with them in the past and they are a a forward thinking and innovative school that inspires their students. They are also a NI Specialist School (see previous blog). Because the numbers of places at the school is capped, the Department of Education refused to raise the cap and denied the 3 students admission.

Well, common sense has prevailed and the 3 students were allowed admission to St. Cecelia’s in a judgement this afternoon as posted by the BBC.

So my question is- does this happen where you are and how have they managed it?  

The Ultimate Steal

Microsoft has launched a terrific back to school package for all FE/HE students in the UK which, of course, Northern Ireland FE/HE students are eligible for.

The details:

The Ultimate Steal

Launch date: 17^th September 2007

Offer: For a limited time only (until the end of April) students with a .ac.uk email address can purchase Microsoft Office Ultimate for just £38.95

How: By visiting www.theultimatesteal.co.uk

Of course, our C2k students along with our FE/HE students can still get a broad range of Microsoft software at

Software4Students in the NI

Software4Students in Ireland 

Dunshaughlin Staff Training Day

As you may already know, Dunshaughlin Community College is a Microsoft Global School of the Future. Part of my remit as the STIC Manager is to engage with Dunshaughlin this year and showcase and deliver what they’re doing and work on projects with them.

I was involved in the “Personalized Learning” Day for Staff last Thursday which was co-ordinated by the school's new Principal, Padraic Browne, Deputy Principal, Janice Corrigan, and Kevin Marshall the Microsoft Partners in Learning (PiLs) Academic Lead for Ireland. There were some terrific presentations on the day. Introductions were made by Mr. Peter Kierans, CEO of Meath VEC and Seamus Ryan, past Principal of Dushaughlin CC, now a Special Advisor to Meath VEC. Kristen Weatherby, MS Academic Lead Worldwide Public Sector, came in from Redmond and  talked about the School of the Future Programme and the global PiLs Programme.

The bulk of the day was delivered by Prof. John West Burnham around Personalizing Learning and Personalizing Learning –The Cognitive Toolkit. I found John to be a very engaging and extremely knowledgeable presenter who captured your attention for the entire session.

If you ever get a chance to listen to him, make sure you lock it in your diary. For those of you who have had the opportunity to sit in on one of his sessions or presentations, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

It was a worthwhile and informative experience.

Thanks to Dunshaughlin and its staff as well as Kristen, Kevin and Prof. West Burnham. 

Windows Live Translator

One of the sites I look at on a fairly regular basis in Channel 10. I’m very big on visual and video presentations to help me understand the latest technologies and offerings. I guess it’s down to my age. I am the quintessential “digital immigrant” as described by Marc Prensky.

The article posted by Larry Larsen showcases the new beta version of Windows Live Translator along with comments. Give it a try and let me know what you think and whether or not you think  its an educational tool that students can benefit from. 

13 More NI Specialist Schools

I wanted to put up the 13 new Northern Ireland Specialist Schools which were selected in May in the second round of applications. The Department of Education Northern Ireland (DENI) invited applications for the 2^nd phase of selection. From the DENI site:

“Each school was required to submit the following:-

• A four-year School Development Plan (SDP).
• A four-year Community Development Plan (CDP) that involves developing partnerships with at least 5 partner schools. This should be a mix of primary and post-primary schools, including at least two post-primary schools.
• Evidence of, or evidence of how a school intends to raise, at least £25,000 of unconditional private sector sponsorship
• A bid for a one-off support grant and an outline of how this would be used.”

So, long overdue congratulations  to the following schools and their selected specialisation:

·         Hazelwood Integrated College                      Arts and Visual

·         Portora Royal College                                     Arts Performing and Visual

·         Carrickfergus College                                      Business and Enterprise

·         St. Patrick’s and St. Brigid’s College             Business and Enterprise

·         Grosvenor Grammar School                           Languages

·         Belfast High School                                          Languages

·         St. Columb’s College                                        Mathematics and Computing

·         Loreto College                                                   Science

·         St. Patrick’s College Maghera                        Science

·         St. Mary’s Grammar                                        Science

·        St. Colman’s College                                                   Science

·         Dromore High School                                      Science

·         Cross and Passion College                             Sports 

Michael Greene’s Blog

Michael Greene, one of my Education colleagues in the States, has collated a great deal of information that students and Teachers can use to help them become more productive and create richer documents and presentations.

He has “done the leg work” of trolling through the Office Online and put together a terrific resource to help students and teachers. So check out his blog site and if you get RSS feeds, be sure to sign up for his. If you don’t use RSS, I would recommend bookmarking his site. 

http://A Powerful Tool for Today’s Students

Encarta (Microsoft’s Encyclopaedia) has come a long way over the years. It’s grown and evolved into a digital resource that is unparalleled. Encarta Premium is now the cornerstone of Microsoft Student. It has an ever-growing database of relevant content but also offers a host of other tools to help your students (and Teachers) better prepare and create powerful documents and presentations. With Microsoft Math you have a great tool to better understand and complete your Math assignments. Your ability to have access to research and information tools is at the core on Encarta Premium. It now includes Learning Essentials, which provides templates and toolkits to create compelling reports, documents and PowerPoint presentations.

You should Take the Tour and learn more about how you can benefit from Microsoft Student 

Students registered in Northern Ireland and UK schools can get significant discounts at Software4Students UK

Students registered in the Republic of Ireland schools can get significant discounts at Software4Students Ireland

Microsoft Faculty Connection

Microsoft Research has recently launched Faculty Connection. In their words:

“Microsoft Faculty Connection is designed to address the challenges you face in teaching technology students. It takes time and preparation to keep students engaged while giving them a fundamental understanding of theory, to provide labs and assignment that inspire innovation and to integrate professional tools and skills that will prepare students for successful careers.

To aid your preparation and save you time, Microsoft’s Faculty Connection features content and valuable tools that are exclusive, free, and designed to support technology educators like you. The site offers curriculum, free software, members-only forums, insight into Microsoft’s latest initiatives, as well as, access to regional events and training. “

Part of the offering is the MSR Assessment Toolkit which is a free download 

Innovative Teachers Forum Awards in Northern Ireland

On Monday, September 3^rd the Belfast STIC in partnership with Classroom 2000 (C2k) will launch the Innovative Teachers Forum Awards competition which is open to all Primary and Post-Primary Teachers in Northern Ireland.

What is this competition:

Innovative Teachers Forum Awards

The Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum Awards is a global event that takes place annually with the worldwide event being held in Helsinki, Finland from 28-31 October 2007.

In Northern Ireland the 2007 Innovative Teachers Forum Awards will be held in partnership with the Classroom 2000 (C2k) and the Microsoft School Technology Innovation Centre (STIC)

Are you using ICT in an innovative way to enhance teaching and learning?

Are you using technology in a way that is new and exciting for your school?

Innovative Teachers Prize

The 2 winning Teacher submissions will each win:

·         Round trip flights from Belfast to Helsinki

·         3 nights accommodation

·         The opportunity to represent their school and Northern Ireland at the annual Innovative Teachers Forum Awards.

What is an innovation?

Teaching and learning is innovative if it is new and ground breaking in the context of the institution where it is being applied. What this means is that even if a school has only had computers for a short space of time, if teachers are doing something exciting with them, then they are being innovative. Other schools may have had technology for a long time, but their teachers are innovative if they continue to come up with new ways to enhance teaching and learning through the integration of ICT.

What is an innovative teacher?

•  An innovative teacher is someone who teaches in a way that is new or groundbreaking at the school, while integrating ICT to support that teaching.

•  An innovative teacher is someone who uses ICT in new or groundbreaking ways.

•  An innovative teacher can demonstrate that teaching and learning has improved as a result of the approaches used. 

How can teachers nominate themselves?

Firstly, you must register on the Innovative Teachers website (www.innovativeteachers.com)

 Look for the Northern Ireland Innovative Teachers portal in October.

Submit a written description of your innovation using the Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT) template provided at the C2k Exchange (link to the form) or on the Innovative Teachers UK sharesite. This can be accessed after you’ve registered for the site.

The judging panel will be made up from a select group of Microsoft and C2k panellists. The two finalists will be selected to attend the Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum Awards in Helsinki , Finland in October 2007 sponsored by Microsoft.  Transportation and accommodation is included.

Deadlines

All entries must be received before midnight on 24^th of September, 2007.