Guidelines for use in the Primary school

These packages may be used in the primary school for nearly any purpose from small projects about "Myself " in the infant classes, to publishing books about a class project in the senior classes, to templates for teacher's workcards , or for weekly or monthly progress notes for teachers. Some companies are even using these packages to produce commercial educational software..

1.The project should be chosen by the teacher or the class on educational not technical grounds. The pedagogy should lead and the technology follow.

2.The computer element should only be part and not all of the project.

3.Preparation is essential and will save much trouble later on. Well designed worksheets are very popular with pupils and seem to provide motivation. When the worksheets are produced at the start of a project and you hear the accolade "cool" , you know you are on the right track!

4.Involve the class in research about the project.This will depend on the age level and the books and facilities available.Research(with a small "r") may be from books, reference books, class texts, Multimedia references if available , and perhaps from past projects. Indeed in some projects research may not be relevant.
Integrate the project as much as possible where it comes in naturally but there should not be integration just for its own sake. The best projects are cross curricular.

5.Collect resources for the project E.G clip art, sound resources etc.
Clip art may be got in the following ways
(i) The children's own drawings using a paint package such as "KIDPIX" on the computer.The paint files may then be dragged onto the computer page. It may be easier to scan in pupils artwork . There is great educational worth in using children's own original work rather than commercial clipart.
(Insert picture: parish.jpg)
(ii) Discs of clipart from commercial companies or public domain or clipart obtained from the Internet.(Type in "Free Clipart" In any search engine!)
(iii) Clip art scanned in, or digitised using a digital camera or video camera.Some of the modern digital cameras can take mini videos called MPEGS and these may also be used to show animation within Hyperstudio.
As mentioned above it would be preferable if the digital camera was used by the pupils themselves.

• ---

  
  
  There follows examples of where Generic packages were used in Primary Schools in actual classrooms.I haven't included any project that has not been accomplished in a Primary Classroom.
  Teachers could adapt the ideas for particular situations and should not perceive these guidelines as prescriptive .Here I wish to acknowledge the professional competence of each Primary teacher to use Hyperstudio in his or her own unique way.
  Other Uses
  Hyperstudio may also be used at Post primary level for many kinds of project work and at transition year and post leaving certificate studies.
  In the U.S.A many students have used it for CVs including sound and video.
  

Examples of Project Topics

Projects in the infant classroom about pupils themselves
Projects in First and Second class about animals/nature/people from other countries etc.
Talking books as Gaeilge or in minority lamguages.

Talking books in a special class based on fairy tales.
Letters to Santa from First and Second class.
Local History studies from third to sixth classes.
Environmental projects.

Countries of Europe/the World.

Mammals Irish/Wild/Zoo/In danger
Birds
Insects
Ar gCeantar Féin

G.A.A Counties
Starcompositions.
Comics
Newspapers
Irish History

Prepared worksheets by the teacher.
Projects based on the new Science curriculum

The Hyperstudio Package:(Prices are in Irish Punts)

The Hyperstudio package contains:
1.A Hyperstudio manual which has reference section and tutorial section.
2. A Hyperlogo manual with reference and tutorial .
3. Install disc.
4.Hyperstudio CD which also includes a library of clipart, animated gifs, backgrounds and sample stacks.

Hyperstudio can be purchased at Diskovery, Liffey Street,Dublin 2 .Phone 01-8732822
The school prices for HyperStudio are as follows;

HyperStudio Academic £125.00 including VAT. This gives the school 2 copies of the program and one set of manuals. Additional CD's - any amount of them, £30 including VAT per CD.

Retail price of HyperStudio is £145.00 inc VAT for full boxed product.

Footnote:
One of the problems about the introduction of Information and Communication technology into Irish schools has been the dearth of commercial software which would serve the Irish curriculum,culture and language .The same applies to any other minority language or culture.. This is to be expected given the small customer base in global terms. While it may be a disadvantage it is also an opportunity…..children , teachers and schools can now provide their own cultural resources to make up for this lack and the process of so doing has benefits which greatly outweigh the disadvantage.

Internet sites to see about Hyperstudio:

Official Hyperstudio Site : www.hyperstudio.com

Discovery Site: www.diskovery.ie

Hyperstudio Network: www.hsnetwork.com

Scoilnet Site..the official Irish Educational Portal site :www.scoilnet.ie

There are some Irish Hyperstudio stacks that will be downloadable from the Culture section of Scoilnet.

Some Hyperstudio stacks are downloadable from the Culture department of the European Virtual School.

www.eun.org