Friday 18 April 2008

Fruit Salad Demo



I used the visualiser for the first time with my class (Year 1) before we broke up for the Spring holiday. Of course, gadgets of this nature never fail to attract the attention of small children and I was not to be proven wrong on this occasion.

The greatest thing about this visualiser though is its sheer portability. I have previously seen an ICT Consultant from Havering using one last year at Manford Primary (a Whiteboard Network meeting). He showed it alongside a more expensive model. The demonstration really put me off of even considering the lower quality product. The resolution was so poor.

I was half expecting a similar standard with these ones, but technology really does move fast. The standard of the Genee Mini Visualiser is almost on a par with the more expensive one our school owns. There was no graininess or time lags when moving an object at all.

I used the visualiser to demonstrate how to create a fruit salad, not the most exciting things for adults, but 5 year olds always think that you are 'so clever' and a 'good cook' when you peel and cut an apple!

They were fascinated by the enlarged real-time image being projected onto the Smart board and this modeling allowed them to peel, cut and mix the fruit completely unaided. Without this I would have had to have demonstrated this task with a small group at a time.

The children then wrote instructions for the process ...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Andrew,

Have enjoyed reading your blog. Just wondered if you wouldn't mind rewording your blog post below to make it clear that it was the quality of the visualiser that put you off and not my demonstration at Manford. I would suggest the text below if possible.

Hope you don't mind.

Many thanks,

Dave

Dave Smith
Havering ICT Consultant

"The greatest thing about this visualiser though is its sheer portability. I have previously seen an ICT Consultant from Havering using one last year at Manford Primary (a Whiteboard Network meeting). He showed it alongside a more expensive model. The resolution of the lower quality product was so poor that it really put me off of even considering one of those."