Laurie O'Donnell

Now into my second month and beginning to find my feet in this new world of self-employment.

One of the roles I have added to my portfolio is that of adviser/consultant to Do Be Ltd, a small Fife based company working in the area educational resources and training/cpd. It’s a new kind of experience for me moving from a national public body, funded to provide free at the point of use resources, to a  small business that has to identify a market need and then generate sales in order to survive. The work with Do Be gives me an opportunity to look at some of the issues around educational resources from another perspective – maybe even from the other end of the telescope.

Do Be Teach It

Do Be’s latest product is Teach It a photocopy-able  pack and associated website featuring 40 technology lesson ideas. The lesson ideas cover the use of Google Earth, audio, video, computer games and the internet in a step by step guide that could be used either for direct teaching or as a learner led resource. As always with Do Be the design is great and it’s presented in a very colourful and easy accessible way.

What makes this resource different and perhaps even unique is the combination of bringing all of these technologies together in the same pack and the straightforward introduction to how they can be used in the classroom to support learning and teaching. Using GoogleEarth for example is not in itself difficult but the pack provides a gentle way in that many teachers will welcome.

I am always interested to see how teachers use new resources in the classroom, often in ways that are more inventive than considered even by their inventors. I look forward to seeing how Teach It ends up being used to brighten up learning -  or in Do Be terminology to ‘take learning to the next level’.