1. Embedding ICT across the Curriculum
Marica Saliba eLearning Teacher

2. ICT as a TOOL ... NOT an extra subject!!!!

3. Embedding ICT
A good number of teachers from our college participated, on a voluntarily basis in this year’s Embed: Best Use of ICT competition. The majority of these teachers managed to adapt a theme that was relevant to their syllabus content and embed ICT as a tool that can be used across the curriculum in order to teach a variety of subjects.

4. What was used in our projects...
PrintShop
The Internet
Wikis
Tux Paint
Photosynth
Picasa
Blogs
StopMotion
V.C using Skype
PowerPoint
KidPix
Video Productions
Sketchfu
Websites
PhotoStory
eTwinning
Digital Talking Books
Interactive Whiteboards

5. Photosynth
Photosynth takes your photos, mashes them together and recreates a 3D scene out of them that anyone can view and move around in.
Photosynth allows you to explore details of places, objects, and events. You can’t stop video, move around and zoom in to check out the smallest details, but with Photosynth you can. And you can’t look at a photo gallery and immediately see the spatial relation between the photos, but with Photosynth you can.

6. Photosynth - www.photosynth.net
For the creation of Photosynths, children learned how to use a digital camera to capture a succession of photos. In most cases, themes were combined with Social Studies and educational outings. Those classes that created Photosynths, took part in an online competition organised by Microsoft.

7. Photosynths by students & teachers

8. Stop Motion
Stop Motion Animation: the rapid display of a sequence of images involving 2-D or 3-D artwork or models, using MonkeyJam.
Four classes created animations as the final product of their project. These projects took place over a number of months and included a variety of activities.
Activities included the creation of stories or poems by the children themselves with the help of the teachers as part of creative writing and story-telling.

9. Stop Motion
Children were involved in the creation of backgrounds and models for their stories. Most backgrounds were created by means of appropriate ICT software, while plasticine was used for the creation of the models during Arts and Crafts lessons.
Subsequently, every class was divided into small groups for the animation production. In every one of these animation production sessions, we, as eLearning teachers, set up various stations for the groups to work at.

11. Tux Paint, KidPix, Sketchfu
TuxPaint, KidPix and Sketchfu: software and application used for the creation of digital pictures and scenes.
Content created with the above-mentioned software, varied from free hand drawings on the class computers to the use of digital stamps to create scenes. These scenes illustrated various themes, such as, The Seasons, Farm Animals, Fruit and background scenes used in animations and videos.

24. PowerPoint
PowerPoint Presentation: a presentation program by Microsoft that forms part of the Microsoft Office suite.
Students managed to create PowerPoint presentations about various topics. In some of our classes the students managed to go beyond the expected outcomes by including colourful clipart images, their own digital photos, text narration and even custom animation.

25. Photostory
Photostory: software that allows users to create digital stories with photos, music and narration.
Students created digital stories in relation to a particular topic. Stories covered mainly school outings and narrations with children’s own scanned drawings and photos taken by the students themselves during educational outings and school activities.

26. Photostories

27. Blogs, Wikis and Websites
Blogs, Wikis and Websites: online electronic showcases for teachers’ resources and classroom activities.
The Primary School Blog was used to upload children’s writings on the Internet. Write-ups included descriptive passages about school outings and composition topics. Children were highly motivated to produce creative writings, find relevant pictures and to post them online. Some teachers created their own wikis and websites to showcase activities that took place in their classrooms.

28. eTwinning eTwinning: collaborative projects between European schools.
Teachers collaborated with foreign schools on projects that they had previously agreed upon. These projects involved the sharing of material between the schools so that the children could get to know other students from different cultures and backgrounds. One of the teachers was awarded the eTwinning Quality Label and placed second in a national eTwinning competition that promoted cross-curricular activities and the use of technology in the classroom.

31. Video Productions
Video Productions: the creation of DVDs with the use of digital cameras to record videos.
Children learnt how to use a digital camera to record video clips of project activities. Such productions included a video about the Queen’s baton Relay and a music video promoting the benefits of various fruits and vegetables that were categorised by colour. A short movie about traditional and modern digital games was awarded Best Use of ICT in the Embed Competition 2010.

32. Video Productions

33. Picasa Picasa: photo editing software
Picasa projects enabled students to learn how to use a digital camera to take photos. Photos were uploaded on the class PCs and the students used this software to create collages and artistic photo editing effects.

34. Interactive Whiteboards
Interactive Whiteboards: electronic whiteboards that enable interactivity. We installed the software of the various interactive whiteboards found in the schools on the teachers’ laptops. Teachers were briefed about the use of this software for the creation of classroom resources and interactive activities. Further training will be given next year when these whiteboards will be introduced in Year 5 classes.

35. Digital Talking Books
A Digital Talking Book: is a multimedia representation of a print publication. It's very easy to add voice to your talking book/photo album!

36. Video Conferencing
Video Conferencing: using Net Meeting and Skype to transmit live video.

37. PrintShop
Broderbund's The Print Shop Essentials is a next-generation production powerhouse for an extensive variety of projects - newsletters, resumes, greeting cards, banners etc

38. Teachers and students who attended the Embed Expo expressed positive comments about the variety of material displayed. They were even impressed at how very well organised this event was and many expressed the wish of making next year’s Expo open to the public again and to cater for more students from the participating schools.