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Two classes are at the moment involved in planning a clay animation on German "Introductions". They have analysed some animations from America (via the Tech4Learning website) and have been working on resource lists, storyboards, and scripts.

David attended SETT 2005 in Glasgow, and met Darren and Maria from FLaT. He also spoke with a couple of FLaT "mentors", receiving encouragement and advice. Thanks to the FLaT team for organising the 'get-together'.

Media Stage has been purchased for the FLaT room at Hillside. David and Tony have been discussing this excellent software for some time. A good deal was negotiated at SETT following a comprehensive demonstration which clearly marries Multiple Intelligences with current ICT developments. The challenge as ever will be in fulfilling its cross-curricular potential, although it should certainly advance our efforts to provide meaningful Drama, Music, and Media Studies in the school.

Management at Hillside have announced that completion of the FLaT room is now the number one priority for the maintenance team.

One further main interest which was nurtured at SETT was the use of Podcasting in schools. Hillside already run a Radiowaves internet radio station, however there appears to be some excellent ideas coming from across the 'Pond' eg building up a store of mp3 Podcasts which would be available for download onto a personal MP3/iPod. If the Podcast was about a health issue, then this method of communication could reduce embarassment etc.

Output from our FLaT project will be shared with the wider educational community. The main way of doing this will be via the Access Network. This group now has it's own YahooGroup (to join send an email to accessnetwork-subscribe@yahoogroups.com). Shortly, electronic copy of some Hillside-produced Access materials (not NABs) will be posted to the YahooGroup, thus being available for download by members of the group.

Animation in the Curriculum - planning meeting

The first of these monthly meetings took place today. Three teachers got together to plan a task which utilises clay animation and the application of Multiple Intelligences theory. The group decided that their students would be expected to plan, resource, and film a short stop-motion clay animation based upon their current German topic - "Hallo und Auf Wiedersehen".

Pupils will initially be asked to evaluate 3 animations downloaded from the Tech4learning website. They will examine our Clay Animation Kit and decide upon further resources needed. The final part of the planning stage will see the students create a storyboard and script. They will then be ready to start filming using StopMotion Pro and Audacity.