Saturday, 28 February 2009

New collaborations on the horizon


Next week will see the start of two new collaborations between the students and staff of Woodford and Meadowbank. The year 6 children will undertake a challenge on the Stock Market, using Excel to track stock shares of up to 1000 units in their own currency. David Kinane will teach the Woodford children, via a free Skype call and Dimdim's shared desktop feature, how to add a live web inquiry to excel. The challenge for each trader in the Exchanges (schools) is to choose their stocks carefully and over a period of time track the profit / loss, selling and buying new shares where appropriate. The trader with the greatest % gain on their initial investment will be our best trader. We will post examples of the children's work here over the next few weeks.
The second project will be a collaboration of groups of children from each school designing and creating a global themed game using GameMaker. Again Woodford children will benefit from the expertise of David Kinane in the basics of using GameMaker. The children will use a wiki to collaborate: sharing ideas, discussions and resources to ensure that tasks are allocated to each member of the team.
We will share our collaborative triumphs, despairs and progress regularly via this blog. Who will be a best trader? Which "Exchange" will make the best gain on their initial investments? Who will create the most interactive and challenging global game?