We provide several 'digital days' that involve a consultant working in school with your teachers and pupils modelling the delivery of a chosen technology. These days are designed to demonstrate how ICT can be used as a cross-curricular tool to encourage creativity in the classroom. We generally work with half class groups (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and provide the necessary hardware (mobile wireless network) software and peripherals for the session. If the school would like to provide staff training on the technology being used we can provide a free staff meeting as long as the staff meeting is on the same day as the support is delivered in school.

Cost: A standard digital day is £600 but discount is available if you have purchased one of our subscription packages.

Digital Animation

The children are shown how to create stop frame animation using the digital movie creator cameras commonly known as 'digital blues'. The concept of stop frame animation is outlined and children are shown how to use a simple story board to plan an animated sequence of events using plasticine models, toy characters or other items. They learn basic animation techniques and how to combine their animation with titles, special effects and sound to create a simple animated movie. This gives children the chance to work collaboratively, develop speaking and listening skills as well as demonstrate learning through digital media. All work created by the children is made available to the school along with teacher / pupil documents and handouts explaining how to create animation using the cameras. Work created can be submitted to the annual Film and Animation competition we hold in the Summer term.

Music Creation

The children are shown how to create digital music using one of two packages. KS2 children can create dance music using the Dance 7 software from Ejay. This involves editing dance music using the samples available in the software to produce a CD single. KS1 children can produce simple music using the 2Simple Music Toolkit which involves exploring sounds and building simple melodies. All work created by the children is made available to the school along with teacher / pupil documents and handouts explaining how to create animation using the cameras. Work created can be submitted to the annual Film and Animation competition we hold in the Summer term.

Photostory 3

Photostory 3 is a free product that runs on PCs with Windows XP or Vista. It allows pupils to combine digital images, music and narration to produce a movie. The software can be used across the curriculum for children to present their learning in any subject area and has been used very effectively to develop boys writing. All work created by the children is made available to the school along with teacher / pupil documents and handouts explaining how to create Photostory 3 movies. Work created can be submitted to the annual Film and Animation competition we hold in the Summer term.

Scratch

Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, art, etc. and share your creations on the web. It allows schools to deliver the control technology elements of the ICT NC PoS in an exciting and imaginative way leading to the use of Scratch to demonstrating learning across the curriculum. Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. All work created by the children is made available to the school along with teacher / pupil documents and handouts explaining how to use Scratch.