Some of the pupils in my class had been struggling with some of the finer details of telling the time. They were trying hard, but, let’s face it, the concepts can be quite tricky. They were becoming quite disillusioned, so last week I showed them a Youtube video of Dave Allen talking about learning to tell the time

Now, we had been doing work on this same target for a few weeks now, and they were still having bother. The video cheered them up a bit, and stopped them feeling that they were the only people in the world who had ever had these problems. I had been thinking about how I might help them ‘get it’ all week, but was still unsure.

And then I had a eureka moment.

We got the desks back against the wall of the class, so we just had a big gap in the middle of the class and 3 piles of chairs. I told them I wasn’t going to give them any instructions, but that when they knew what I was doing they could help me. I put a chair standing in the gap, and then wrote out a number 12 and stuck it on. As soon as I wrote 6, they had it sussed and were able to help me arrange the chairs in a circle with the numbers 1-12 stuck on them in the correct clockface positions. We used a ruler as ‘the hour hand’ and they were all able to demonstrate that they knew where the hour hand should be pointing for a particular “o’clock”. We put a swivel chair in the middle of the ‘clock’ to help us move smoothly like a clock, and also had a discussion about the way the hand would move (only clockwise!).

Next, I moved the marked hours down off the backs of the circled chairs so they were hanging on the seat part, and stuck a sign with “o’clock” onto the back of the 12 chair. Again, they were quick to realise what was happening and in turns (starting with half past, quarter past and quarter to) we soon had the minutes in the right places above the respective hours. I found that being able to actually turn round really helped them work out where the numbers were in relation to each other – for instance, if they were facing 9, I could ask what was behind them and they knew without looking that it was 3.

Our chairs have been formed into a circle to represent a clock face, with the hours 1-12 stuck on low down and the minutes from o'clock to five to stuck on higher up

We then found ourselves a suitable hour hand, it having to be significantly longer than our hour hand, and thinner if possible. We then practised showing a particular minute to/from using the hour hand, before setting a question for the other pupils. Again, they were able to demonstrate good knowledge, and again the physical set up helped – for instance, with the hours being closer to the centre of the clock, I was able to point out that the minute hand was longer, and therefore should be looking at the further away numbers. It also helped I could direct gaze – ‘look up’ or ‘look down’ were a real help to the pupils. Also, being able to physically handle the hour and minute hands certainly seemed to help them distinguish between them.

Big hand pointing to 12, small hand pointing to 1. What time do you think it says on the clock?

WE then took some pictures of our clock, and Twitpicced them – an hour later they had had about 40 views each, and we also got a couple of comments from a parent. Finally, in turn I gave the pupils a single hand of the clock and got them to point to a specific chair. They had to read the chair’s time to me using which hand they had to tell which number they were to read. Again, this worked very well. At that point, we sorted the chairs and the desks out, put everything back where it should be and went to use one of the excellent Teaching Time resources on the SMART Board as a plenary activity. Just as we were about to start, I remembered that I had promised myself to use AudioBoo with the class, so out came Artoo (my trusty iPhone) and I had a chat with the boys about the lesson. The result was not quite as structured as I would have liked, but seemed positive. Judge for yourself by having a listen!

So, a successful lesson, and a useful technique that we can use again. I have already had another couple of ideas to develop the activity. The one downside was when I was asking my PSA if she thought the lesson had been any good: “Oh yes, I thought it was excellent. Was that one of Cassie’s ideas?”

I have used AudioBoo to record a few pieces for the EDUTalk project, one at a Dark Sky Scotland event I was at, one on assessment in my classroom and another which sort of turned into a rant about Community Learning Partnerships.

AudioBoo is fantastically easy to use, and makes publishing audio to the web incredibly easy for anyone with an iPhone (I think it’s cousin, PhoneBoo does the same for non iPhone users).

Going to try and post the audio below. Have a listen and see what you think.

I mean, how great is that? And it’s so easy to use. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Think I’ll try and get the AudioBoos going in class – think my students will love it.

Last week I introduced the class to the excellent 2DIY from 2Simple software, and they all made themselves a game, with support. I am hopeful that now they have been through the process once, we will be able to fade the support and see what they are capable of on their own.

I had tried to drop all the games into SMART Notebook so we could share them and display them all from one place, but although the games displayed alright, the controls didn’t work. I sent out an SOS to Anthony Evans at 2Simple, and he has kicked it around for a while with no joy finally concluding it might be a Notebook issue. I’ll forward that to my friends at SMART, but in the meantime Anthony suggested they could be displayed on a blog, much like Cleveland Junior School have done here. I must admit, I like the thematic idea, with Pirate Pete adventuring his way through a number of different games.

So I thought I would try and drop one of the class games here and see if it worked! If it does, this is ‘Kong’

Kong

So, shamed into action by Alan Hamilton and his bright shiny new blog (and this post in particular) I thought I would have a bit of blog reflection myself.

Whilst I have to confess that it all seems a bit of a whirlwind now, 2009 was a big year for me professionally. I finished the Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Support from Strathclyde University and began the Postgraduate Diploma. My confidence in class had grown with my first year in the sector under my belt, and I felt I was just starting to get a handle on my class when it was time to move class again! This time I found myself in our ‘integration unit’ at the local high school, with the older pupils from our school who can handle that kind of an environment. This meant more SQA Access 1, 2 and Core Skills units, more college days or the pupils, and more organisational challenges for me. The addition of the ASDAN Transition Challenge to our repertoire was also to provide challenges. I contributed in a small way to organising at least 3 TeachMeets (and a very successful BeerMeet) and also presented at 2 TeachMeets, one virtual and one actual. I also managed to find myself on the school ICT Quality Team, tagged as the school Glow expert and on some Glow training. Phew.

Nevertheless……

I managed to write 13 blog posts last year – in reverse chronological order:

Multitouch mayhem – finding our way around a SMART Table
SLF09 Post 2: TeachMeet – is there a time to break the the rules?
SLF09 Post 1 – Presenting on the SMART Table
Building Glow Communities – Social Studies
Overprotected?
Catch Up Post – Part 2 – #weather_me
Catch Up Post – Part 1 – Teachmeet Student Edition
And now, in a break from your scheduled programming….
Smart Table Activity Toolkit – Hot Spotting!
Introducing our Smart Table
TeachMeet hits the Borders
The Impact of Academia
New Year’s Resolution

While that’s an average of more than one a month, in reality there were months with nothing doing on the blog. Plus, there was a lot of good stuff that never made it to the blog either. Put that together with long blog posts, and it might just be a recipe for disaster.

So this year it’s going to be different. Answering Alan’s challenge, this post was to outline my ambitions for the year ahead.

1) Write a post on this blog at the very least once a month. I’m also going to embrace shorter, snappier posts for the issues which don’t need to be too indepth, and try and widen out what I post about.
2) Related to the above, I am going to try and publish a ‘phlog’/podcast/audioboo on the EDUTalk website at least once a month as part of the EDUTalk365 project. I already have one for January under my belt, and have spoken to David Noble about theming this round my adoption of the ASDAN programme into our practice, and linking it with ACfe.
3) Continue to get actively involved in real, quality CPD. As a TeachMeet and Twitter evangelist, I am hugely excited about the amount of opportunities they continue to offer me through the network of contacts I have built, and the support and help they offer each other.
4) Not really education related, but if I put it up here then I’ll have to stick to it or live with the shame. Now the sciataca is gone and the tendons are back in shape, build my fitness back up with the first two targets being a Sport Relief mile and a 5k. The “Couch to 5k” iPhone app and BMF should help with this.
5) Complete and pass the Diploma in Educational Support. A great opportunity that has been given to me, I am determined to pass it, despite the difficulties it can cause with regards to free time, etc. My first module is complete and the essay in (although I fear a resubmission may be on the cards :-s ) the second one is proving even more challenging, but I’m learning so much too.

That’ll probably do for just now – I’ll maybe look back after 3 months and see how I’m getting on.

This is a post to give some idea about what I was thinking of saying during my presentation at #TMSLF09, if I had been lucky enough to be chosen.

A year ago, I sat watching a presentation being given by Tom Barrett at TeachMeetSLF08 on the Philips Entertaible, a multitouch device being used in Tom’s school. I remember using my phone to text to the backchannel in the room – “Where do I get my hands on one of those tables?”. I saw them as a very intuitive and powerful tool for teaching and learning, and could see a number of possible ways to utilise the technology.

I was intrigued enough to go and do a bit of digging on the internet, and was fascinated to find there was a real community out there looking at multitouch, particularly at the NUI Group. I also stumbled across the work being done at Durham University by the SynergyNet project – another one that Tom became involved in – and was particularly impressed with the Water Application, which convinced me even further about the potential of these devices in the ASN setting. Around the same time, I found my DHT watching a video for the Microsoft Surface, and became involved in discussions about how such devices could be used in the school in the future.

Someone at SMART must have been listening.

The news came through around March that we had been selected as one of the schools in the UK to pilot the SMART Table, a multitouch device from the people behind the SMART Board. As it turned out, Tom’s school had been selected too. To say I was excited would be something of an understatement. The table arrived, and we were soon all playing on it merrily. You can read my initial thoughts on the Table here and my description of creating my first activity here.

Things have moved on a bit since then, in a number of ways. Firstly, both myself and my partner-in-crime have become a bit more adept at creating content using the toolkit. Secondly, as we get our heads round the activities themselves, we are finding better, more imaginative ways to use them. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the Toolkit and Table software have both been updated, and user feedback seems to have been involved in shaping the changes to the software, which is always excellent news.

The project is, however, still a pilot, and as such there are a number of limitations. Previewing the activities you are creating  on a computer rather than the Table itself is now possible, but remains buggy. Perhaps a Table emulator (ideally running within the Toolkit) rather than tweaking the Table software to run without a Table would be a solution to this issue.

Secondly, the toolkit itself is somewhat ‘clunky’ to use. Now, having thought about this for a while I have decided that we have to blame SMART Notebook for this issue, and I’ll tell you why. Notebook is just so versatile, user-friendly and intuitive to use that it makes other applications look bad. With the Table Activity Toolkit being another SMART product, I keep expecting it to be as good as Notebook. What I have forgotten, of course, is that we are currently on Notebook 10, whilst we are only on Table Toolkit 1, or maybe 1.5. The good people at SMART – who have already been tweaking the toolkit, mere months after its release – have had years to get Notebook right, bit by bit, responding to detailed user feedback. Table Toolkit has not yet had that luxury, although it is already trying: if you look at the new activity created “Hot Spaces” it directly addresses many of the issues I raised in my “Hot Spotting” blog post. Given time, I am sure the Toolkit will become as quick and easy to use as Notebook itself.

This would help address the third issue, one raised previously by Tom Barrett when he said that the balance between the time spent by the teacher creating an activity and the pupils using an activity was not quite right. Whilst in our school this isn’t as much of an issue –  the same activities may be used over and over again by the same pupils with a great deal of engagement, making our ‘payoff’ much higher – I can understand that with older, mainstream classes this may not necessarily be the case. Additionally, the number of pupils that may make up a group in Tom’s class would probably be the same amount that would make up a class in our school, and whilst obviously there are good reasons for this, I can certainly recognise and sympathise with Tom’s point. An improved user interface for the Toolkit, one that enabled content to be produced more efficiently, would go a long way to ‘improving the payoff’. Ideally, the Toolkit could be integrated into or linked with Notebook in much the same way as the Senteo/Smart Response software is. This could build on an already familiar and very effective platform.

Finally we come to the issue that I believe is going to determine the success or otherwise of the SMART Table – content. Whilst the number of different activities you can do on the Table has already increased, and the range of resources using these activities continues to grow (see here for SMART’s Table Activity download page), at the moment there just aren’t enough things to do with the Table, and the things that there are to do can often seem very similar. In simple terms, the hardware is currently ahead of the software – a bit like the first iPhones, waiting for the app developers to catch up with the hardware. Whilst this situation is completely natural and understandable, it doesn’t half get frustrating! I have a number of ideas floating about that could make for fantastic Table activities, and just don’t have the ICT/coding capability to do anything about them. For example, a version of Durham’s Water Application would be fantastic, and could be used on a number of levels if created properly; from simple cause & effect through to a virtual ripple tank. Some kind of reactive music & colour application would be great too – with different touches causing different sounds and colours to appear –  and my very first thought of a finger-football application would be amazing for gross/fine motor skills as well as co-operation and teamwork. And there are many more brilliant ideas out there covering a wide variety of subjects, not all of them requiring a great deal of work – myself and Tom had a lengthy Twitter conversation about how the Finger Addition application could be easily adapted to provide a range of activities from the same basic platform. Similarly, the ‘Puzzle’ application could be a veritable goldmine of content, were it customisable (create new shapes, add pictures) and included in the Toolkit. Perhaps putting some educators into a room with some code writers is the way to go on this issue.

I think it is clear that the SMART Table definitely has a place in the classroom. It excites and engages pupils, and just screams out to be touched. Overall, our pupils just love it, as I think was clear to anyone who saw the demonstrating at the Scottish Learning Festival. It has the potential to be a fantastic addition to the repertoire of tools that teachers and pupils have at their disposal, and I look forward to continuing on that journey with SMART.

This is a post which I was saving for later, because it seemed to make sense to talk about the Scottish Learning Festival and TeachMeet before doing any kind of analysis. However, as we all know, best laid plans gang aft a-gley; in this instance because I went to read this post on John Connell’s blog, which directed me to read this other post first. As it turns out, I felt a need to comment on the first post, and the responses from Neil Winton and Ewan McIntosh, but instead of a short response to a blog post, I found myself writing and writing, and wandering further and further from the original point. So much so, that not only did I decide to turn it into a blog post in its own right, but I also still haven’t managed to read the post I went to read in the first place! (I’ll get to it later!!!). Who knew I had so much to say???

For those of you who might not know about TeachMeet, here’s a quick explanation for you by Tim and Moby as premiered at TMSLF09 (the TeachMeet fringe event of the Scottish Learning Festival this year).

Tim and Moby explain about TeachMeet

Now, it’s fair to say that I am a huge TeachMeet fan – and evangelist too – and have been since my first one at the Glasgow Science Centre. They are an amazing thing to witness; events put together and attended by enthusiastic and committed members of the education community, and I have learned so much from each and every one I have attended. It’s easy to see why TeachMeet continues to expand. The format is really something – short, snappy presentations mean that even if the presentation that’s on has absolutely zero relevance for you, something else will be along in about 6 and a half minutes, and you can talk to the person next to you while you’re waiting anyway. Learning conversations, round tables, breakouts, distance presentations – all help to mix it up a bit and of course the ‘intervals’ are good too.

While this all might seem easy and obvious to come up with, it clearly wasn’t. The innovation and imagination to come up with the TeachMeet model is something we should all be very grateful to its architects for. It is an unconference – meant to be subversive and a bit ramshackle as Ewan points out in his comment on John’s post. Something that is a bit different to the conferences or talks that we are all sent along to on a fairly regular basis. All in all, TeachMeet creates a very special atmosphere or spirit amongst those attending (and even some of those who aren’t).

And it is this spirit, surely, that is TeachMeet’s strength. Whilst rules have been put in place to create the event and indeed this atmosphere, clearly an evolution has now occurred. Is there a point at which the rules stop being part of the solution and start becoming part of the problem?

I watched the other night as 2 different presentations ran close to their allotted 7 minutes. Both presentations had clearly struck a chord with the audience and had everyone engaged. They weren’t going to last 15 minutes, or even 10, but both needed perhaps 7 and a half or 8 minutes to come to their natural, elegant and effective conclusions. So, decision time: do we allow these brilliant presentations to over run slightly, or do we cut them off in an abrupt manner citing the Jobsworth Mantra (”Them’s the rules……”)?

My own feeling would be that we can be flexible, and afford them that little bit of extra time – it is, after all, our time we are giving – and indeed this seemed to be the prevalent attitude on the night. However, I know that there are those who think that a rule is there to be enforced. Is this what the original organisers of TeachMeet intended? Somehow I doubt it (although I am willing to hear that I am wrong on that issue).

On top of all that, at the moment, we (inadvertently?) put up a number of barriers to participation for the non-tech-savvy classroom practitioner. Apart from the fact that the TeachMeet blurb – and indeed the logo – have a strong focus on technology, there is the way we market and administrate the event itself to consider. How do you know when the next TeachMeet is coming up? Check the wiki? Keep an eye on Twitter? Read blogs? And if you want to go? Easy – sign up on the wiki. All this when there are still teachers – and good teachers at that – who through no fault of their own may struggle to access an e-mail.

A related Twitter conversation has been going on recently regarding the subject matter of TeachMeet presentations. The model has proven successful so far, but are we currently ‘preaching to the choir’ by focussing on technology? We have asked how we can widen the TeachMeet audience, and perhaps opening up the subject matter is a way to go? A sustainable ‘family’ of TeachMeets after all, do not need to have the same people attending. We have seen a number of distinct TeachMeets evolve already: TeachMeet ASN, TeachMeet Physics, TeachMeet Student Edition and even TeachMeet Mac!   Surely a mix of Primary TeachMeets, Subject-based TeachMeets (I have heard rumours of a Techie TeachMeet for months, and I would also have thought Geography would have been right in there….) and local authority based TeachMeets such as that suggested by some teachers in Falkirk would be a good and sustainable way to move forward. Add in the ’spinoff’ events like LeadMeet, GregMeet and even BeerMeet, and that adds up to a pretty healthy  and varied scene.

So, is it time to relax the rules a bit? Throw things open to a bit more innovation and adaptation, in the TeachMeet tradition? Perhaps if we do this, the TeachMeet alternative that John talks about may just show up itself. But to do this, the enthusiasts and forward thinkers need to know that it’s ok to try things out and to make mistakes, and that by doing so they are not going to annoy, upset or even offend others in the education community, particularly those who came up with the original concept and those who have helped build it into what it is today. After all, we don’t want TeachMeet to turn into the precious crockery that’s never used and just for looking at.

Well, the maelstrom that was last week has now passed, and I have had a wee bit of time to reflect on the Scottish Learning Festival 2009. Don’t think I’m up to writing a massive blog post about the whole thing, so I thought I’d do it in wee chunks, and decided to start with the thing that had been worrying me most – the school’s SMART Table presentation which was on the SMART stand about lunchtime both Wednesday and Thursday.

We had brought 4 children in each day, and had created a new set of Table activities for the event to give them a bit of a surprise. These new activities were themed round Pirates, as that is the current class topic. On arrival at the SECC both days, our pupils went on tour trying to blag as much free stuff as they possibly could – and did pretty well – before heading to the SMART Stand.

Thanks to John Johston for allowing me to use this picture from his Flickr feed

Once there,we moved to where the Table was. Given that the stand had been designed to facilitate SMART Board presentations, the location of the Table on the stand made it a bit tricky to present on – an issue I’m sure will be addressed before next year. The pupils soldiered on nonetheless as did the audience (which I noticed included Margaret Vass and Cassie Law from Falkirk, as well as my own Head Teacher). I ended up going round explaining what was going on to those watching and answering questions. Whilst the children did well, and the people who I spoke to seemed to enjoy it, we felt that it lacked a bit bit of impact, and asked if we would be able to move the Table to the presentation area at the top of the stand. Sadly due to cabling issues that wasn’t possible, so we figured we would come up with something else.

The something else was dropped on me about 5 minutes before we started our Thursday talk; I was to gather people in the presentation area and give them a bit of an introduction before inviting them down to the Table itself. I was miked up and amplified, and a good crowd were gathered for the start of our talk, with others joining later – including John Johnston who took some photos and Tom Barrett one of the other British teachers who has had a SMART Table in their classroom. After giving an intro and bringing the audience down to the Table (where the pupils were once again getting on with things magnificently!) I remained miked up and was able to give a ‘play-by-play commentary’ of the activities on the table.
Overall this format worked better than the Tuesday format, and is definitely something I would look at again for the future.

After we presented, I was able to chat to both John Johnston and Tom Barrett, both of whom gave us very positive feedback about the presentation. Tom and I also discussed the very different experience that the Table offers to different classes (such as his and mine).

Overall I think it went OK, but there’s a rumour that we might be presenting  it at BETT , so we would need to make sure we got everything sorted. Wish us luck!

A very quick post about what I have been up to for the last 2 days!

I was lucky enough to be sent by my school on a 2 day Glow training course to build communities, and decided that the Social Studies group was the one to go for. It was held at the Stirling Management Centre, first time I have visited there and was very impressed. All the staff were very friendly and helpful, and the venue itself is second to none. The catering is more than impressive also!

Martin Brown, Katie Barrowman and Sat (whose surname I don’t know – how bad is that?) from LTS had a fantastic programme of events lined up for us to give us the necessary skills and information to set about creating our own custom built Glow groups. And by the end of Day 2, when the groups were all showing what they had come up with, I was so impressed with the ‘products’.

Two massive benefits I noticed of doing this course were these:

1 – Looking at what other people were already doing with Glow, and how they were using it. Also, seeing what they chose to do with their new-build group.

2 – Having all that Glow expertise ‘on tap’. Sat, Katie and Martin were all on hand to help us all with queries rather than having to struggle on and try and work it out for yourselves. What a difference it made.

Twitter was, as always, being used at the event, search for the hashtag #bgcss to see the tweets.

The Glow group I was working on with Frances is here
and I know that Alan Hamilton’s Fair Trade Glow Group is proving very popular too – check here

All feedback gratefully received!

Although I am still a fairly new teacher, when you take into account my scouting experience and my work as a classroom assistant, I have been working with children for about 20 years now in a variety of settings and roles; this has given me an interesting insight into how children’s lives have changed over this period.

I have found myself experiencing a growing unease about the lives many young people live today. As well as spending the majority of their leisure time in (often solitary) indoor pursuits like computer games or surfing the internet (not that there is anything wrong with these activities per se you understand :-p) and little time engaging in outdoor pursuits  like we did “when I were a lad”, I also feel that many children are ‘overregulated’; that is to say they seem to spend far less time outwith the supervision of adults now than they ever did. I find myself thinking that perhaps today’s children are missing out on the huge informal learning experiences that we took for granted when we were allowed a far greater freedom than today’s children seem to be offered.

Okay, sometimes we got ourselves into scrapes, or picked up the odd injury or twelve, and perhaps we got up to some mischief, but on the other hand we learned to evaluate risks, to formulate plans, to debate and to negotiate and of course a multitude of social skills. In short, we learnt what it was to be independent. Are today’s young people offered the same opportunities? It doesn’t seem so.

Whilst it may once have been the norm for children to be away playing with their friends all day only to reappear at mealtimes and dusk, a similar attitude today would find you being targeted as a bad parent. As a result, children are rarely allowed ‘off the leash’ as it were, and even if they are there is usually a mobile phone allowing communication but also location tagging should the parent desire. But is it necessarily the case that we are just ‘looking out’ for children, or have they become what Britney would call ‘overprotected’?

It was from this mindset that I came across the following article in yesterday’s Sunday Mail today (don’t ask!). I found it fascinating, and thoroughly applaud the philosophy behind it. Outdoors in all weathers – when did that become a revolutionary idea? The quote from Adam Ingram on the website is fantastic: “ There is a cotton-wool culture that has developed in Scotland and encouraging young people to get out and reconnect with the natural world can only enrich their lives”.

I hope it is a real success, and am also hopeful that being in the south side of Glasgow I might be able to swing a wee day-visit to see exactly what goes on after the holidays are over.

Have a read and see what you think.

Sunday Mail article 26th July

Been meaning to talk about this for a while now – have found it very exciting, and of obvious value for classroom use. We’ve had a lot of fun on our SMART Board with this.

Basically, what we’re talking about is a weather map with weather symbols on it, just like you see on the TV weather forecasts, but located on a web page. Sounds pretty dull, eh?

But that’s where the genius starts.

This isn’t some remote, static weather map that all you can do is look at it. This weather map relies on YOU to tell it what the weather is like.

Initially, the only way to send information to the map was from a Twitter account. By tweeting following the format #weather_me <location>, <weather keyword>, <comments> you could send your real-time weather info to the map. And that was good.

But.

The format was fairly precise to follow. A misplaced comma or using a non-keyword to describe the weather, and all your good work was undone. During the last week of term, I used my Twitter network to try and cover the map in real-time weather info that they had supplied, and to a certain extent we succeeded. The only problem was that many of the tweets weren’t correctly formatted, and although I could see and understand them they weren’t recognised by the site. ReTweeting them provided a quick work around, and we certainly managed to cover the map in symbols (mostly sunny ones as I remember), but the downside of that, as pointed out by Kenny, was that I looked like I had colonised the whole of the British Isles. Given that the Tweet on the map that my class were most interested in was their own, this would have taken away somewhat from other classes who had Tweeted weather, and also prevented my class from finding out about other people who had been Tweeting from looking at the map itself. Also, it meant that people HAD to have a Twitter account to use the site, which given the blocking issues in schools could sometimes be too much to ask for.

Fortunately, the extremely technically gifted Matthew Tullett from twelve20 was watching and learning.

He tweaked the site in a number of ways, including the ability to send the weather from the site itself. This opened it up to anyone to use, not just the Twitterati. As long as you have a location/postcode and an internet connection you can use the site.

Really looking forward to using it in the new school year, and I am hopeful about building a network of educators/schools who will regularly supply weather info – after all, it’s so quick and easy. I think Alan was looking to help set something up, although I can’t remember off the top of my head if it was really him or not! Sounds like his kind of thing though, so it probably was! :-p

Only 2 things I was thinking would help improve the website:

1 – An area on the website form for a name, so that you can tell people who you are when using this interface (obviously when using Twitter, this is done by using your Twusername)

2 – Some of the symbols are difficult to see against the map – maybe make them a different colour, or give them an outline, or make the map a different colour?

Small tweaks I am sure you would agree.

Go on – try it here now (you are looking for the “you can add to map here” link on the right hand side). And it’s not just users in the UK, the map can go global too just zoom out.