I am a Project Developer at a City Learning Centre in North London who is currently delivering on a Masters course called the Transformation Teachers Programme. We currently have 35 teachers on the course, who come from 10 secondary schools, 4 special school and also involves a number of National Strategy consultants. The participants have all been challenged to investigate, through classroom based action research, how teaching and learning can be transformed enabled by digital media and the use of Web 2.0.
We decided to give the staff kit comprising of a Mac Book partitioned to provide both Mac and PC environments, a digital camera and tripod and a selection of software. As approx 90% of the group had never used Macs before, there was a real sense of excitement and concern when they got the kit.
We have established individual blogs for each participant so that they can blog their journey through the project but have also set up a number of blogs to draw out the experiences of the group. Our Apple Mac Blog will seek to explain how the macs can be used creatively in the classroom - the important element here is that these teachers are all so new to the Mac that it is refreshing to see how easy they are finding the transition from PC to Mac. There is also a blog to draw out possibilities for Assessment for Learning. Both these blogs are in their infancy but we are keen to establish international links to be able to both share our experiences and benefit from other peoples ideas so please visit the blogs and add comments or posts as you feel fit.
