Interactive Language Teaching Resource

Welcome to Coco and online interactive language teaching environment. A friendly ape/gorilla/monkey called Coco performs user directed tasks in a series of brightly coloured scenarios with onscreen text in French, English, Polish, German, Spanish and Chinese. 

Children listen, click through each scenario and repeat. Its aimed at children between the ages of (3-6 years. Words are spoken by natural speakers in each language. You need a decent computer with sound and a Flash plugin installed in your browser for it to work.

Peer to Peer teaching in ICT - Stop Motion Animation

As part of a creative Partnership residency in Derby, we ran a whole school digital storytelling week.  Working in teams pupils wrote storyboard scripts and created mini sets in cardboard boxes!  Each team set-up a digital camera on a tripod and took pictures of action figures/small toys moving around the set. Y4,5,6 helped Y1, 2 and Y3s take pictures. Even Foundation Stage got in on the act! The media specialist students (they had been trained in using ICT creatively by me) were on had to offer advice to teachers and help other pupils!

A great example of year groups working together and sharing skills across the school.

Top Tips;
1. Use a tripod and keep the camera still when taking photos
2. Set you picture quality to no more than 2mega pixels
3. Keep take your Set as still as you can!
4. Taking 50 pictures means 25 seconds of animation
5. You can view your animation in camera
6.You can add titles, music and a narration using editing software. Check out my adding a narration tutorial.
7. If your using the XP version of MovieMaker, in menu- options/advanced - change image duration to 0.5 seconds. Trust me its make thing easier in the long run!
8. Have a play using pine cones/leaves/twigs/etc.to get your animation movements right - you can make them to dance!
9.You can download free music here
10. Make sure you have plenty of light, open curtain/blinds, turn the classroom lights on, point your Set at the window - use your camera flash if you need to.
11. If you have a webcam- stop motion animation is easy! You can save your picture directly to your computer using great free software like Philipp Brendel's Frame by Frame.

Creative Partnerships Residency, Derby

A Ghost from a haunted school film 

I've completed an exciting year long Primary school residency, turning pupils and teachers into creative media specialists!


The 'Media Moguls' pupil group cascaded their skills to other pupils and teachers too! After they became confident at podcasting, digital imaging, and using ICT equipment, they  created written user guides and videos.


We worked together on two whole school creative media projects, one involved storytelling using stop motion animation and digital imaging manipulation Alice in Wonderland theme.

A Media Mogul!

I also delivered one to one training with teachers, and worked alongside teacher staff in classrooms. Part of the residency also involved me hosting CPD sessions during INSET days.


Both staff and pupils grew in confidence across a wide range of media, raised achievement and helped to develop a creative curriculum. 

Funded by Creative Partnerships and  The Mighty Creatives

An Easy Stop Motion Animation Project

Equipment Needed: Digital Camera, Small Tripod, Table, Set or Backdrop, Characters, Editing Software


1. Before you start, press the menu button on your camera and set your picture quality to 2 mega pixels


2. Place you camera on a tripod in front of your Set or backdrop (make sure the maximum amount of light is falling onto your Set.


3. Decide what the physical movements you want for your characters and take a picture. 
IMPORTANT: Keep your camera and tripod still during picture taking. Get someone to hold the base legs of the tripod.


4. Take 50 pictures for 25 seconds of action


5. Open your software and copy your pictures to your computers hard drive.


6. Open your editing software and import your pictures


7. Ensure that you set your still image options to 0.5 seconds (In Windows moviemaker XP  'Options', 'Advanced' 'Picture Duration  In iMovie 09 - 'Project properties', 'Timing' 'Photo Duration'.


8. Place your pictures in numerical order on the timeline


9. Play your animation on the timeline


10. Checkout the 'Adding a Narration' post to add a dialogue soundtrack to your animation.