Electronic Drumkit Lessons via Video Conference

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Posted by upbeat | Posted in Health & Well Being, International Education | Posted on June 27, 2011

Richard James delivering a lesson on electronic drumkit to a student in St Columba's Primary School, Annan, Dumfries & Galloway

Instrumental Music Lessons in Dumfries & Galloway, south-west Scotland have in part been delivered for the past 6 years by tutors over the distance learning medium of video conferencing. Brass, woodwind, guitar and cello lessons have all been delivered from Lochside Education Centre in Dumfries to pupils in 16 primary schools and many secondary schools, spanning a distance across the Dumfries & Galloway region of over 100 miles. Recently in May 2011, Richard James (Senior Tutor, Percussion) started to teach young people in Dumfries & Galloway schools on electronic drumkit. Dumfries & Galloway is Scotland’s third largest geographic council with many small, rural schools. High quality Polycom video conferencing systems over broadband are tools we use to great effect in addressing equal opportunity issues in education for pupils in a sustainable way. Savings in travel time and costs for tutors can be achieved alongside the additional benefits of reducing the council’s collective carbon footprint. An independent evaluation on the teaching programme over video-link was conducted by Warwick University. They found our work in this area to be ground-breaking and ‘inspirational’.

http://www.flatprojects.org.uk/evaluations/evaluationreports/ITVC.asp

http://www.flatprojects.org.uk/Images/ITVC%20Project%20Final%20Evaluation%20Report_tcm4-450615.pdf

http://www.northerngrid.org/attachments/628_videonations_vc_case_study_music_learning.pdf

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=2416703

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6028669

http://phone.heppell.mobi/2009/09/making-notes.html

http://www.abrsm.org/resources/libretto0801.pdf

Clarence Clemons – E Street Band Saxophonist

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Posted by upbeat | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on June 25, 2011

The musician had been in hospital since suffering a stroke at his Florida home last weekend (June 11-12) and passed away yesterday (18).

Clarence Clemons passed away last Saturday, 18th June. Many people didn’t know his name, but they had certainly heard his music. From the beginnings of the E Street Band in 1972, Clarence Clemons played a central part in Bruce Springsteen’s music, in songs like “Born to Run” with melodic saxophone hooks that echoed early rock ‘n’ roll. Equally important to the group’s image was the sense of affection and unbreakable camaraderie between Springsteen and Clemons.

‘The Big Man’ will be missed.

Proposals for ‘Dumfries Learning Town’

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Posted by upbeat | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on June 25, 2011

This week’s Times Educational Supplement Scotland leads on innovative proposals for the ”Dumfries Learning Town”. Dumfries is the largest town in the council area of Dumfries & Galloway, in South-West Scotland.

The River Nith, Dumfries

The River Nith, Dumfries

Dumfries could be the first place in Scotland to create a new model of senior secondary school, serving all 1,100 S4-6 pupils in the town.

Colin Grant, director of education services at Dumfries and Galloway, will next week outline to parents and teachers the council’s vision of the “Dumfries Learning Town” which would see its particular concept of a senior secondary built alongside further and higher education institutions on Crichton campus.

TESS understands that at least three other authorities – Perth and Kinross, Aberdeen City and Fife – have explored similar concepts, but are not as far advanced as Dumfries and Galloway.

If the Dumfries model wins the backing of parents and teachers, pupils in S1-3 in Dumfries High, Dumfries Academy, Maxwelltown High and St Joseph’s College would remain in their current schools, but would work more closely with local primaries.

The proposal would allow for the creation of actual or virtual “middle schools”, offering more specialist teaching for upper-primary pupils and less fragmentation of the curriculum for lower secondary.

S4-6 pupils would have access to a wider range of subjects in a single senior secondary; they would also have more vocational options by being located next to Dumfries and Galloway College and local businesses.

With Glasgow University and the University of the West of Scotland also running courses on the campus, schools could collaborate more closely with higher education – HE lecturers could deliver Advanced Higher work – said Mr Grant.

He stressed the council wanted to “ask questions rather than give answers” in its consultations with locals.

“We have good schools, but many talented and committed staff are working in tired buildings and our young people are learning in limiting physical environments. We also have great challenges around continuity and transition,” he said.

Past reviews of the school estate, which had recommended closing one or two of the town’s secondaries, had run into difficulties, he explained.

When Mr Grant became education director three years ago, he wanted to ensure that communities did not lose their schools.

“With Curriculum for Excellence has come a unique opportunity. If we were starting again, we would not build primaries and secondaries separately. Here was an opportunity to look at the whole big picture,” Mr Grant told TESS.

Greater momentum has been added to the vision by the current financial backdrop. “We are past the day of replacing a school with a like school. And politically, how could you argue that any one of the four should be replaced and not the other three?” he added.

The proposal would have obvious implications for teachers: some might opt to teach S1-3 and some S4-6, while others might be timetabled across the two. If the “middle school” takes in P6-7 pupils, the General Teaching Council for Scotland would have to be consulted, as its regulations categorise teachers as either primary or secondary.

Educational consultant and former Clackmannanshire Council chief executive Keir Bloomer was involved in early planning stages of the proposal. “A senior school like this will be able to create a much wider curriculum, greater choice and will be able to do that simultaneously at lower cost,” he said.

The template could be applied to towns supporting three or four secondaries or cities, he said.

elizabeth.buie@tes.co.uk.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6090286

The Future of Work

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Posted by upbeat | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on June 24, 2011

Changing Education Paradigms

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Posted by upbeat | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on June 24, 2011

In educating our kids, we can’t keep trying to meet the future by doing what we’ve done in the past. Enjoy this video by Sir Ken Robinson.

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