catherine.cowie

I am a member of the ICT Support for Learning (Scotland) Group and was recently sent a message that Highland Council and the Scottish Interactive Technology Centre have launched a Highland video podcasting service to support secondary pupils. The site provides downloads for Biology, Advanced Higher Geography and Advanced Higher Physics.
The link to the site is http://mj.sitc.co.uk/Active/Podcasts.php
These podcasts work perfectly well with iTunes and the RSS link with Safari on a Mac and Windows users can use the new version of Internet Explorer 7 to subscribe to the RSS feed or download a free RSS reader. Awasu works fine.
I showed some of the Intermediate 1 Biology podcasts to one of the Biology Teachers in Rothesay Academy and he reckons they will be very useful to use with his pupils.
I think they are a fantastic resource and I must say well done Highland Region.

For the last couple of weeks I have been verifying the marking of ‘Using computers: An Introduction.’ This is one of the units that classroom and additional needs assistants complete as part of their Professional Development Award. Last year I was involved in the delivering of the training for this module for the assistants and assessing their work and it has been interesting to take this work further. I think we often forget what a valuable contribution these assistants make to the use of ICT in the classroom.
I spent Monday in Oban delivering training for the Classroom and Additional Needs Assistants. The module they are studying at the moment is ‘Supporting Learning Through Computer Applications. We looked at software aids and hardware aids. The authority has purchased an assessment kit that contains lots of software and hardware but unfortunately we did not have access to this equipment.

I have been trying to post on my blog for sometime now but I never seem to be able to get on to the site when I have the time. So from now on I am going to try a different tactic. I am going to prepare my blog offline and the when I get access I will just need to copy and paste my entry in. I hope this is going to work

My name is Katy Cowie and I have been teaching for over 30 years. I am a member of the Cowal Network Support Team, based in Dunoon Primary, but I’m only in Cowal one day a week as I am seconded to Bute Network Support Team, based in Rothesay Academy, for the rest of the week.

I was one of the Argyll & Bute Masterclass team and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities that being in Masterclass brought. I am looking forward to the further training and new opportunities that Glow programme will bring to Scottish Education. This is an exciting time to be involved in ICT within the Education system and I am particularly interested in the accessibility aspect of the Glow portal for pupils with additional support needs.

As a learning support teacher I thoroughly enjoy teaching and passing on new skills to the children I work with. I have found ICT a great motivator in the learning support situation and I am keen to develop and share my practice with others.

I hope to post some of my uses of ICT on these pages in the near future.