These support learning and teaching in literacy (letter and number formation, first sounds, first words, first blends, spelling using look, say, cover, write and check), numeracy (odd and even, counting to 10, number table, number sequencing, station of the times tables, addition and subtraction to 10 and to 100, telling the time, and handling money), touch-typinggames to learn keyboarding skills, and matching and memory games.
Each activity has a range of accessibility (whether keyboard-only users, mouse-only users and switch users) and a range of difficulty options.
Drones are devices which fly without a pilot on board – they are remotely controlled, either manually (perhaps from a mobile smartphone or tablet) or through programmed instructions. They can be very large and heavy (often carrying cameras, with a big battery capacity to enable long range in the air), or small, lightweight and able to be carried in the hand (with very limited battery capacity and air time but more suited to indoor use in a classroom). Devices suitable for the classroom will be lightweight and cause little issue if they fall from flying. Larger outdoor devices require more risk management and an understanding of the legal requirements as to where and how they can be deployed (for UK legislation about the use of drones see https://www.caa.co.uk/Consumers/Unmanned-aircraft-and-drones/ and https://dronesafe.uk/drone-code/
What can you do with Drones in the Classroom?
Drones provide an engaging way to develop mathematical and spatial concepts in the classroom – position, distance and movement in a real 3D environment, the classroom itself. Using coding to program a drone to take off, perform pre-planned movements and land safely, requires learners to put into practice measurement of distance, angle/turn, and spatial awareness – extending skills in coding programmable floor robots in another dimension.
Drones in the English Classroom – a podcast, with a verbatim transcript, of an interview with Santha Walters and on the blog by Vicki Davis about the experiences of getting started using drones in an English language classroom to teach writing, collaboration and more. There is helpful advice about how to get started, developing understanding of safety issues when having flying devices in the classroom, how to build on enthusiasm of the learners themselves to give them greater ownership of their learning, and handy technical tips for using drones in the classroom.
Learning Takes to the Skies – a blogpost by Matthew Lynch about using drones in the classroom. This describes the different skills being which are learned when using drones in a classroom setting and gives examples of drones in different curricular areas as well as cross-curricular.
Click on this link to browse various Tweets which have been shared about uses of drones which have application in educational contexts.
So you’d need a drone (such as ones aimed at classroom use provided by companies like Parrot). And you’d need a smartphone or tablet device (such as an iPad or Android tablet) with an app (such as Tynker, Apple Swift Playgrounds or SpheroEdu) which controls the drone. Once these are connected the rest is down to what you are trying to teach – and the scenarios you wish to set up to support learning in a context. Can your learners program the drone to take off, make the outline of a square in the air and then land? Can they make different shapes in the air? Can they make the drone flip upside down? Can they go to above a specific location on the floor, hover, then move to another location before returning to precisely the same as the take-off point?
So what is a Digital Breakout or Escape Room or Cracking the Code activity anyway?
Cracking the Code to break out and escape in a classroom story scenario by solving the puzzles in a classroom activity – where learners have to solve puzzles in order to get a code for each step to reveal the next puzzle. This can be called a Digital Breakout or Digital Escape Room activity as the learners have to solve problems (which can be related to anything being studied in the classroom at the time) in order to get the code word clue which will then allow them to reveal the next puzzle to be solved, and when all puzzles are solved will the learners be deemed to have cracked the code to let them “escape” or “break out” in this story scenario created by the teacher.
Why use a digital Escape Room Breakout Room activity in your classroom?
With a digital escape room, breakout room, crack the code activity learners work at their own pace, they can collaborate if you choose that option or they can work individually. They are solving problems to gain the passcode for the next activity which provides a fun challenge element to their learning. Learners get immediate feedback in that they must correctly solve the task in each section in order to get the code which reveals their next challenge.
What can be used?
Microsoft OneNote provides a good digital tool to set up the activity since it can have multiple sections, each of which can have a passcode applied, so that instructions, clues and activities are only revealed when the passcode is entered on a digital device, whether a computer tablet or smartphone. The clues (activities requiring solving a problem to get a passcode) can be very simple or require quite a bit of problem solving on the part of the learner – the teacher creating the activity chooses how easy or how hard the activity will be to suit the class and the timescales in which the activity will take place. And of course they can relate to whichever area of the curriculum is being taught at that time. It can be used as a form of revision or consolidation or testing of understanding – the teacher setting the tasks to suit the need.
How to set up a OneNote Notebook for a Breakout or Escape Room or Cracking the Code activity
Here’s step by step guidance for teachers using OneNote through Glow
OneNote is part of Microsoft Office 365 and is available to all staff and pupils in schools in Scotland with a Glow login. Here’s how to set up your Breakout/Escape Room/Crack the Code activities using OneNote with your Glow account:
2. Click on the OneDrive tile on the RM Unify Launchpad in Glow.
3. Click “+ New” and choose “OneNote notebook” from the drop down menu
4. Give your OneNote Notebook a name and click “create”
5. The notebook you have now created will open in OneNote Online
6. On the left-hand navigation menu right-click on “Untitled Section” and choose “Rename” to give your section a name, such as “Task 1” or “Puzzle 1”.
7. Add as many sections as you will require, one for each task/puzzle, by clicking on “+ Section” at the bottom left of your screen and naming each section such as Task 2, Task 3, etc.
8. In each section there will be a page where you add a title for the page and add the text with the task/puzzle instructions. As well as simply adding text any OneNote page can, if you wish, also have pictures, links, video, or embedded content. Each section page will have a puzzle or task to solve which ends up with an answer which will be what unlocks the next section (once you’ve added the passcode protection to the section).
9. To be able to add the passcode you have to now open in the desktop version (or mobile app) of your OneNote as currently the passcode protection can’t be added in the online version (though users will be able to make use of the passcode to enter the sections, you simply can’t apply the passcode protection code in the online version). So simply click on “Open in OneNote” along the ribbon menu along the top of your OneNote Notebook (note that if this is the first time you’ve done this on a computer you may have to enter your full Glow email address and password to set up the connection between the online and desktop versions). If you have the OneNote mobile app set up on your tablet device or smartphone you will be able to apply the passcode there too. To apply the lock right-click on the section tab and choose “Password Protect This Section” (if doing this on the mobile app then simply hold for a few seconds on the section name and the option to add the lock will be displayed).
10. Add the passcode answer from the previous section for each task on each section in turn (take a note somewhere else of each passcode as there is no means to access a passcode-protected section if you forget the passcode!). Don’t put a passcode on the first section so that your pupils will be able to access that right away.
Sharing your Breakout/Escape Room/Crack the Code OneNote Notebook
1. Return to the online version of the OneNote notebook you created
2. Click “Share” in the top right corner.
3. On the “share” box which appears click on the menu arrow which appears beside “Only the people you specific will have access to edit” so that further choices appear. Then select “anyone” and make sure the box beside “Allow Editing” is not ticked (in Glow this choice will is already be unticked and appears greyed out – note also that for Glow users only staff will have this option available). Click Apply.
4. Now click on “copy link” and this will provide you with a link you can now share with your class, perhaps in an email or somewhere online where your class have access to click on the link. The automatically created link may be too long to share easily if you’re displaying it on screen for learners to copy onto their browser, so you may wish to shorten the link using a URL shortening tool such as https://bitly.com/ or https://tinyurl.com/ or http://www.glo.li/shorten.php – you may also wish to use these tools to create a QR code which can give even quicker access to a site by a user using the QR code scanner built into mobile devices.
Want to see more examples of Digital Escape Rooms using OneNote?
So if you’re not sure what you might put in your OneNote Escape Room/Breakout Room activity sections then have a look at the examples on the embedded Tweets below, or on the links below that, for inspiration. Click on the Twitter Moments link below to see examples of OneNote used by others to create a digital Escape Room, BreakOut Room or Crack the Code learning activities. Below this embedded content there are also links to examples of OneNote Breakout Room Escape Room activities.
Come Escape with OneNote – a downloadable pdf how-to guide with example of how to create a Digital BreakOut Room, Escape Room or Crack the Code learning activity using OneNote. This is by Alyssa Martin and Lin Lee.
MathsBot.com – a series of free online tools which will support a teacher in teaching mathematics. These are designed to be used in a teaching situation where a teacher is using the tools directly with learners to help explain concepts, or to provide interactive activities with a class, a group or individual learners.
There are tools to support mathematics teaching at all stages whether primary school or high school. They can be used in different ways to suit the level of understanding of the learners at any stage.
There are a number of these tools which would work particularly well in a primary classroom, perhaps used projected onto an interactive class screen and manipulated by learners under the direction of a teacher as they explore mathematical concepts together. So in the manipulatives section you’ll find a fraction wall, counters, counting stick, Cuisenaire rods, Dienes blocks, Geoboard, pentominoes, place value counters, ten frame and unit box. Then tools like Venn Diagrams can let pupils explore a whole range of different aspects whether properties of numbers (such as even/odd, 1-digit/2-digit, less-than/more-than), area of rectangles, co-ordinates. and more. The Number of the Day interactive tool can be used to display a range of random questions based on a teacher’s choice of difficulty and the range of number answers as well as difficulty level. So for quick-fire mental maths classroom activities it could be useful as a daily routine for a few minutes. Likewise there is the AfL Checkup tool which a teacher can set at whatever level of difficulty would best support and challenge learners, within choices of arithmetic, converting time units, fractions, measure, money, and more. And within each choice you can choose the aspects of these which match what is being taught and learned in the classroom at the time to consolidate and challenge learners in a fun interactive way.
There’s Manipulatives, Printables, Starter Drills, Tools, Question Generators, Puzzles and specific resources to support a maths curriculum.
This a very useful set of resources, adaptable to so many classroom situations to be used in whatever way a teacher can see will best support, challenge and motivate their learners.
ClassroomScreen.com is a free online tool which brings together a host of useful tools for the classroom into one screen display.
Choose your own background, bring up a timer, set a traffic light for any activity, choose pupils with a random name generator, add text instructions on screen, set visual noise level measure, draw on a whiteboard, have pupils click on the classroom response tool on the screen for any question you ask to display quick feedback. And if teaching another language just a quick flick and the language changes to suit. So much in one screen, and you can move the tools around, switch them on or off as needed and change the background to suit the activity.
Created by Netherlands teacher Laurens Koppers to meet his own classroom needs for such an all-in-one tool, he has included a Padlet feedback page for teachers to share how they are using the tool and to request features. It is not possible to save your screen but it is designed that it should not take more than 30 seconds to put up the screen, and gives an option to save a list of names to upload speedily any time it’s needed.
Built into Classroomscreen you can access the how-to tips and guide to how different parts work by clicking on the 3-line hamburger icon to the top left. Want to see how to have dual screen? Want to use as an exit poll for your classroom? Want to add an image in the text box? Want to use on an iPad? Just click on that hamburger icon and choose Tips and Tricks. There’s a link to a how-to introductory guide to ClassroomScreen.com in the video below:
Virtual Reality, or VR, provides a means to have an experience of a location or object (whether real or imaginary) through a mobile device, often viewed through a headset, in such a way that when the viewer moves around they see the virtual view moving with them. So the images are usually 360 degree images and can be in 3D so that when viewed on a mobile device within a headset with twin lenses it appears to the viewer as being as close to being there as possible. When you move forward, tilt your head, look up – it’s as if you are doing the same in the virtual reality experience.
What are the options for the classroom?
The least expensive option for using Virtual Reality in a classroom would be Google Expeditions using Google Cardboard viewers (while they can be viewed without a twin-lens 3D viewer the viewer will lose the feeling of 3D) which are held by the hand up to the eyes. More expensive options are available with a variety of VR viewer headsets (such as Microsoft HoloLens, Gear VR or Oculus Rift headsets) and accompanying sensors (often handheld) so that the experience can involve touching or interacting with objects within a VR experience – as you approach or touch something in virtual reality it will react in a way as it in real life.
Google Expeditions with Google Cardboard Viewers
Google Expeditions are virtual reality experiences designed with a classroom guided exploration in mind. The teacher downloads the choice of virtual reality location using the Google Expeditions app and starts the expedition. Then when the pupil on the same wi-fi connection starts the app on their device they will see the teacher-directed expedition awaiting them.
In Google Expeditions the teacher application provides suggestions for questions or directions to guide learners as they explore the virtual environment. The teacher can see on their mobile device app where the learners are exploring on their screens, and can make suggestions as the learners explore.
How do I use Google Expeditions with iPads or Android tablets?
The video below shows how Google Expeditions can be viewed on iPads rather than smartphones. Many school may already have iPads or Android tablets, and the Google Expeditions apps will work on these too. However the Google Cardboard viewer is designed with the size of a smartphone in mind. If you wish to use the app on an iPad or Android tablet then when running the setup at the point where you see the two images side by side there is a small icon at the top right which lets you change the twin view to single view. Having done that the view will no longer be 3D and will no longer be held up to the eyes of the viewer but simply handheld.
Where can I find Virtual Reality Experiences for my classroom?
Google Expeditions provides a superb source of Virtual Reality experiences ready to be downloaded for use on devices in the classroom.
Discovery VR provides a wide range of downloadable virtual reality experiences in an educational context. Each is available for specific devices and come with notes for use by the educator with their class to guide their learners in the exploration of the experience.
Microsoft Sway is a presentation tool which is free and works on any device. It can start with a simple word-processed document (or from other sources such as Powerpoint or PDF) where you’ve put your ideas and, with just a few clicks, you can upload the document, highlight text you wish to emphasise, which parts to make into new sections, where to add images, embedded video links and images, and add emphasis in an engaging way.
Want to make a tutorial presentation using Sway? The video below shows how you can structure a Sway presentation to use embedded videos, images and text to explain the steps in any process for explaining to others.
How to use Sway for a school project. The following video shows how Sway can be used to create a project on any topic in an educational context.
To share your Sway presentation with others you simply copy the weblink URL which Sway provides for you, and share that, whether via social media or email (there are specific buttons at the share part of Sway which provides you with the appropriate link for each method of sharing. This can also be used to embed in a Glow WordPress blog – just add the short link in the body of a blogpost and it will automatically embed. Note that if you are using your Glow user account to share your Sway link the Sway presentation must have ben made public for others to see it, it cannot be embedded elsewhere online (such as a blog) unless the Sway presentation is public and can be seen by anyone on the Sway settings.
Below is an example Sway “Sway for Education: Sway in the Classroom” which provides examples of how Sway can be used, and also shows in itself what a Sway presentation can look like.
Examples of Sway in Education
Sway – The star of your 2015 Classroom – a post on the Microsoft Australian Teachers Blog. This provides a host of ideas for how Sway can be used in a classroom context, as well as examples of created Sways.
Want to share video of school activity with parents/carers and the wider community? It’s an often-made request from schools about how to best do that.
Using a class blog
For schools wanting to share the learning which goes on in the classroom with the wider school community they could use a class or a school blog and upload video there, direct to the blog’s media gallery. However there’s usually a limit on the upload file size, and often a total storage limit which can limit what is shared. For short videos where there’s a wish to have text written beside the video to better describe what’s being viewed and set it in context of the learning, and where a class already is familiar with a blog, then this can provide a good means to share video. Here’s a guide to adding video to a WordPress blog specifically for Glow users:
A school or class Twitter account can now share short videos with a short message – and this can provide the quickest means to share short snippets of examples of learning. To add the video just start a new tweet and go to add an image and you’ll now see the option to add video. These can only be short videos but combined with the speed of being added straight from the mobile device which is used to create the video it provides a very quick means to share examples of learning. Short text messages can of course be added.
Using a School YouTube Channel
The world’s best-known video-sharing site is of course YouTube and many schools now have a dedicated school YouTube channel. There are many reasons to use YouTube: it’s free, can handle very large file sizes, it streams the video so that it plays immediately for the viewer and does not require a whole video to be first downloaded prior to viewing, has a host of tools for making the raw video even better (such as blurring faces, adding royalty-free music backing track), the resulting videos can be shared by simple link or embedded in a school website or class blog (without adding to the storage space of the website or blog). And it can all be viewed on mobile devices as well as smart televisions.
When setting up a school YouTube channel there are a number of settings which schools may wish to consider such as disabling comments (schools can embed videos in their school blogs and provide the facility to receive comments there, which can be moderated more easily there); switching off the facility for viewers to vote on a video, or to see ratings or to allow video responses. Ensure video can be embedded so that it can be added to school or class blogs and website. Add a link in the banner to the school website or blog, and to a school Twitter or Facebook account if applicable. Click here for advice about setting up a school YouTube channel. You may wish to set video upload defaults so that videos are listed in the Education category. Videos uploaded have the option to be private (useful prior to making public while editing may be undertaken such as adding a soundtrack for YouTube’s bank of royalty-free music tracks for this purpose), unlisted (where anyone with the link can access the video but it will not show on the school’s YouTube channel list of video – handy prior to making public to share with a colleague to perhaps use the YouTube facility to add annotations) or public – where everyone can see the video and find it by searching.
YouTube Channel of Falkirk Council Education Services
Falkirk Council Education Services YouTube Channel can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FCEducationServices
A YouTube Channel has the facility for Playlists – which lets you group together videos on specific topics or themes, so the Falkirk Council Education Services YouTube Channel has playlists for outdoor learning, flipped classroom, active literacy, and more. This also has links to all of the YouTube channels of each educational establishment in Falkirk Council Education Services, such as Westquarter Primary School which has nearly 400 videos in their school YouTube Channel:
Using OneDrive or Sharepoint Site in Office 365 in Glow
If videos created by a teacher or learner are simply to be shared with other school users then schools which have Office 365 (which is one of the tools available to all Glow users) have additional options for sharing video, depending on how they wish to share the video. Some teachers may be using the flipped classroom ideas, where teacher-created videos explaining concepts they wish learners to understand in advance of class time are shared with pupils in advance, along with tasks to help with understanding specific concepts, so that the time in class can then be used to develop the understanding of the learner in problem-solving collaborative contexts to help develop deeper understanding. In this particular case the videos may only be for the pupils in that class and not for public viewing. So videos can be added to a folder with the teacher’s Office 365 OneDrive, and that folder with the videos shared with all pupils in a class – by choosing the share option on the folder the link to that folder will also be shared with the teacher’s named pupils via Office 365 Outlook email (a link can also be added to the class site within Office 365 SharePoint site to avoid having to find the email with the link.
Alternatively the class site in Office 365 can have a media app added to the class site (in SharePoint) so that videos can be played just by the learner clicking on them, and they don’t first have to be downloaded as may be the case with an ordinary document store app. A teacher who’s administrator of their class site adds the video store by clicking on the cog settings app at the top-right of their class site – choose add an app – type “video” in the add an app search box – select “Asset Library”, name it something like “class videos” and click create. This can now be added to the class site by returning to the class site, clicking “edit” at the top right, click “insert” at the top-left, choose app part – select the video store you created, click where you wish to position it on the page and click “add” then save. Now it’s ready to add videos. Office 365 provides users with unlimited storage so this is a useful way for sharing videos with named individuals within the establishment.
OneNote is a free tool which works online through a web browser, or through apps for mobile devices, or as a desktop software (it’s also part of Microsoft Office 2013).
And it’s available to users of Microsoft Office 365 (so all Scottish school pupils and staff with Glow access have this as part of the features available automatically to them via their Glow login).
But what is OneNote?
It’s like a ring-binder where you can choose to have multiple sections (like card-dividers in a real ring-binder), and within each section you can have multiple pages. And it all synchronises on multiple devices should you wish it to do so.
How might OneNote be used in a classroom context?
So you may be a teacher who may have sections in a OneNote file for each subject, and within each subject pages for each pupil. Each page can contain text, photographs, comments, web links, audio or video so may be an evidence gathering tool for a teacher. A picture to show evidence of a piece of practical work can be instantly inserted via mobile device straight to a pupil’s page for a particular subject in the OneNote file.
Pupils could create a OneNote of their own and use it as a learning log, an eportfolio, a place to jot down their notes, links to resources, documents, websites, etc. And a OneNote stored online can be shared with another user – so a pupil may create a piece of work in a OneNote file for a particular topic, subject or teacher and share access to that so it could be shared only with that one pupil and their teacher.
The creator of the OneNote file can choose to make it so that the teacher can add comments to the document for feedback to the pupil, directly on the document. And in some versions they can also add an audio file of feedback straight into the page.
Here’s a video tutorial showing how OneNote might be used as a pupil topic research tool
Here’s a video by educator Lisa Cuthbert-Novak showing how her learners use OneNote to chronicle their learning journey in writing, particularly noting the reflections the pupils added to what they were learning as they added examples of their work, their thoughts on the process and links to resources they found:
Choose Your Own Adventure stories – this links to a blog post by Pip Cleaves describing how using the facility to add links to different pages in a OneNote file pupils can create stories with alternative texts for different junctures in a story for their readers.
These two links below also give an overview of the features of the different versions of OneNote, whether the online version, the full desktop software version, or the apps specific to different devices:
OneNote Toolkit for Teachers – a site which provides guides, examples and hints and tips for teachers looking to use OneNote in a classroom context. This comes from the Microsoft Educator Network
OneNote Class Notebook Creator
If schools are signed up to Office 365 then they also have the additional option to use OneNote’s education-specific class tool OneNote Class Notebook Creator where a OneNote class file can be set up so that individual sections or pages can have different access rights or permissions. So a teacher may have a pupil’s page in a class OneNote file shared with only that pupil and the teacher, meaning that nobody else can see that pupil’s work except the teacher and the specific pupil. Or a group of named pupils could have access to specific pages for collaborative working. This is designed to make management easier for the teacher and give more options for different purposes.
Note that in Office 365 the OneNote Class Notebook Creator needs to first be enabled by whoever administer’s the school’s establishment site – once it’s installed teachers can then set up their own class Notebooks.
Here’s a video showing how to get started setting up and using OneNote Class Creator so that a teacher can set up a personal workspace for every learner, a content library for resources, and a collaboration space for lessons and activities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVF90nP9qGQ
OneNote and Assessment – this is a blogpost by Chantelle Davies describing how they see the use of OneNote for assessment with a focus on the audio and video features providing the facility for teachers to create a workspace for every pupil, to offer a content library for adding material, and a collaboration space, with which pupils can work in their space and teachers can give feedback in the same place. The work and feedback can be accessed anywhere any time.
OneNote for Teachers – a comprehensive site which details how OneNote can be got for any device, how it can be set up for use, examples of ways in which it can be used, help guides and much more – all within a classroom context.
Doorway Online Interactive and Accessible Learning – http://www.doorwayonline.org.uk/– an array of free online teaching resources which can be used by early learners independently or as classroom activities led by a teacher on an interactive whiteboard.
Each activity has a range of accessibility (whether keyboard-only users, mouse-only users and switch users) and a range of difficulty options.
Choose your own background, bring up a timer, set a traffic light for any activity, choose pupils with a random name generator, add text instructions on screen, set visual noise level measure, draw on a whiteboard, have pupils click on the classroom response tool on the screen for any question you ask to display quick feedback. And if teaching another language just a quick flick and the language changes to suit. So much in one screen, and you can move the tools around, switch them on or off as needed and change the background to suit the activity.
Virtual Reality, or VR, provides a means to have an experience of a location or object (whether real or imaginary) through a mobile device, often viewed through a headset, in such a way that when the viewer moves around they see the virtual view moving with them. So the images are usually 360 degree images and can be in 3D so that when viewed on a mobile device within a headset with twin lenses it appears to the viewer as being as close to being there as possible. When you move forward, tilt your head, look up – it’s as if you are doing the same in the virtual reality experience.
OneNote
OneNote Toolkit for Teachers
Here's a related interactive online guide to setting up and using OneNote Class notebook creator 
OneNote and Assessment
OneNote for Teachers