Kent ICT Blog

Chinese New Year is fast approaching, 14th February, (the first weekend of the holiday). The Kent ICT Chinese New Year pages have been updated for 2010.

The Hong Bow is now available in a low ink use version.

The old red background version is still available.

:) James

Students equipped with their own laptop demonstrate higher achievement and increased engagement, according to the findings of studies published in the Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment.  All of the studies found that students in the 1:1 settings outperformed their traditional classroom peers on English/Language Arts standardized tests by a statistically significant margin. Study authors also reported on evidence of increased student motivation and engagement, as well as changes in teachers' instructional practices.  See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121171415.htm?sms_ss=twitter for the full article.

 Heidi

Visualisers have been around for quite sometime now, but with the recent drop in price, many schools and Partnerships are now buying them to compliment the use of interactive whiteboards.

A visualiser, at its simplest, is a video camera mounted on a stand that connects to a data projector. Objects can be placed under the camera and the image projected onto an interactive whiteboard. It is great for showing 3D objects, sharing books, children’s work, photographs and  Blue Peter style “how tos”.

Please add a comment below with your thoughts and ideas on how you are using your visualiser in the classroom. Mandy :)

Fiona Aubrey-Smith, Head of Educational Development, UniServity has the following suggestions for using your learning platform effectively and making parental engagement meaningful which go beyond the sharing of pupil attainment and attendance data:
• Provide continuity of resources, support and guidance for parents to support their child beyond school
• Collaborate to create home/school ePortfolios showing children’s formal and informal learning
• Provide parents with the opportunity to share their parental expertise with each other
• Scaffold key skills practice and revision by providing resources for children to do this with their parents at home
• Bring parents skills, hobbies and jobs into the classroom for children to learn from
• Encourage parental visibility into their child’s class through active participation in learning activities
• Provide parents with continuity of resources, methods and skills to replicate demonstrations at home
• Encourage purposeful communication between parents about their experiences
• Facilitate after-school dialogue between children and their parents about each day’s learning experiences
• Offer opportunities for parental voice to be heard and acted upon when designing whole school plans and policies

The old Ready Register did not work with all school networks. There were schools who wanted to try the register but could not get it to work. With this in mind I've been working on a simpler version. This revised version works on networked computers, but only if separate copies of the resource are used for each class. It does not include the Risk Rocket yet, but that's coming. Another useful feature apart from the improved name saving is the automatic picture selection. I just need to ask a kind soul to test the new version for me and suggest changes:

To add children:

1. Open the text file that sits next to the Register
2. Type the children's names as a list
3. Save the text document
4. Open the Ready Register 2010 

Download the zipped file here: Ready Register 2010 (Please unzip before using)

James:)

 Mark Warner, teacher at The Downs School  has put together a fantastic search tool for teachers looking for lesson plans, resources and ideas.

http://www.teachrsearch.co.uk/

 Mark also runs several over very useful sites for teachers:

Teaching Ideas – An extremely popular site, with thousands of free ideas, resources and activities for teachers.

Display Photos – Get inspiration for your classroom displays by browsing through this collection of photos

Teaching Forum – Ask for help, share ideas or have a chat in our forum for teachers.

Teachr – A start page for teachers, showing the latest news and ideas. Also has a search engine to help you find ideas and resources easily.

Ideas to Inspire – This site contains a collection of wonderful collaborative presentations, explaining how to use the latest technology in your classroom.

Welcome to the Web – A fun guide to the Internet, helping young and old become more confident in exploring the World Wide Web.

 Mandy:)

A review of studies of online learning has suggests: 

• Learners who took all or part of their class online perform better than just face-to-face
• Combining face-to-face and online is more effective than purely online or face-to-face
• Learners online spent more time on task
• How the online was delivered made little difference to learning outcomes
• Online approaches showed benefits across content and learner types
• Variation of online materials and medium produced largest improvements
• Giving learners control of their interactions with media and the opportunity for reflection enhances learning

Available at: www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

Our congratulations to Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre, Tenterden (joint runner up).  Described by judges as a 'cracking school' with an 'excellent vision of where it wants to go with technology', Homewood has raised standards through innovation, with ICT playing a key role.  Go to http://awards.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=38715 to find out more.

Louise Thomas (St Ethelbert's Ramsgate) suggested that we should have a number square that demonstrated decimal numbers. It also supports negative numbers.

Features includes:

1. Number range: -15 000 to 15 000
2. Negative numbers
3. Decimal numbers
4. Hide one box at a time
5. Hide all boxes and reveal one at a time
6. Colour fill boxes
7. Clear squares in white or with columns of red
8. Column and row highlighter
9. Increase/decrease number of rows (moves to bottom of screen for younger children)

Click here to try it now. Thank you Louise!

Any feedback on possible changes very welcome!
James:)

View the following places in 360 degree interactive panoramas:

• The Roman Colosseum Italy
• The Great Wall. China
• Petra Jordan - the forgotten City
• Taj Mahal, India
• Machu Picchu, Peru
• Christ Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro Brazil
• Chichén Itzá, Mexico

http://www.panoramas.dk/7-wonders/

Mandy:)

This week we have decided to take a break from chosing just one website, to instead featuring a few classroom and teacher blogs popping up all over the web. Many schools are using blogs as an easy way to raise the profile of classroom learning and/or their schools. (Some schools have even created their school websites from blogs.)

A Year 6 Classroom

A school website created using a Wordpress blog

Blogs not only provide a place for pupils and teachers to write, they also allow readers all round the world to COMMENT on what has been said. A powerful incentive tool for both pupil's and teachers.

Years 6/7 sharing their learning

ICT in my Classroom

ICT Club Blog
http://ictcluboakdale.blogspot.com

A Secondary school blog in Australia
http://hawkesdale.globalstudent.org.au

Do you have a class, school, teacher or pupil bog? Please share your blog by leaving a comment. Please note all comments are moderated.

Mandy:)

The Word Tree is one of my favourite Kent ICT games for FS/KS1 use on the IWB. We wanted to make a version more suitable for KS2. So there's a new game called Premiership Words. It allows to enter and store jazzy words for display on your IWB. The resource is football themed. You choose your two favourite Premiership teams. The words are then displayed on their t-shirts. When you want to enlarge a word you drag it to the bottom to either boy or girl to see a larger football player.

 (Sorry, there is no football in this football resource!!) 

There's a help video here.

Thank you to Jo Rogers from Kingsdown and Ringwould Primary for all of her help in developing this resource.

Have fun,
James

The schedule for Teachers TV this week is focussing on child safety and in particular there are two programmes on esafety.   Both have been shown before and can be downloaded from the website.  See http://www.teachers.tv/node/34948

Heidi

Teachers looking at persuasive writing within a Literacy lesson might want to use an advert from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/series/advertisingvideos Some are unsuitable for classroom use so please do check them in advance.  My personal favourite is this one: www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2009/jan/23/cadbury-eyebrow-ad 

Heidi

Kent teacher Mark Warner's collaborative 'Ideas to Inspire' website continues to grow with the help of teachers all round the world. The latest collaborative collection is over 35 inspirational Youtube videos ideal for using with your class.

http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/youtube.htm

How to download You Tube videos (pdf)

Mandy:)

Welcome to the Web

www.w2tw.co.uk

"Welcome to the Web", created by Kent teacher Mark Warner, is an highly praised interactive set of on-line resources which teach children (an adults) about different aspects of the Internet. The latest update includes speech.

The resources are in split into seven sections:

1. The Beginning - explains how to use the site.
2. Getting Started Online - teaches children about the basic concepts involved in the Internet (World Wide Web, Hyperlinks, Back button etc). This introductory lesson also gives valuable practice in visiting and navigating around web sites.
3. Staying Safe - encourages pupils to keep themselves safe online by following the SMART rules. Also tests their understanding usign interactive activities and fun quizzes.
4. Using Your Browser - helps people to learn more about their web browsers... what are the different features and how are they used?
5. Searching Online - teaches children how to search effectively, and keep themselves safe when doing so. Also identifies search engines which are particularly suitable for children to use.
6. Trying Top Tricks - finding information on the net is great, but it is also important to know how that information can be used. This section explains about printing, using the Find tool to locate specific information within web pages, copying and pasting text, and saving images from the web. Also includes information about copyright and why it is important to credit others when you use their work.
7. The Welcome to the Web Challenge - When the children have completed all of the sections of Welcome to the Web, they can complete this exciting challenge. It requires them to use all of the skills which they have learnt to catch the creator of a destructive computer virus!

When visitors complete the challenge, they are able to print a personalised certificate to show their competence in using the Internet.

Adding a webcam to a birdbox is becoming increasingly popular in schools.

Last Sunday the Kestrel chicks hatch at Povey Farm. Now is a great time to watch them being fed and growing.
http://www.lea.derbyshire.sch.uk/birdcam/kestrelcam/index.html
Very cute, have a look at the project gallery kestrel cam for some pics.

Mandy:)

Available on the Next Generation Learning website, these materials seek to engage parents in supporting their children at home http://www.nextgenerationlearning.org.uk/Online-resources-for-parents/

Tony Cassidy has created a fantastic powerpoint slide with multiple live streaming webcams. He has an example on his blog as well as instructions for making your own. 

Image your students faces when they walk into the classroom to see this on the interactive whiteboard! Each picture is live. You can actually see people and traffic moving!

This resource has lots of uses including:

• comparing weather around the world
• life in other countries eg Egypt 
• day and night around the world 

Visit Tony's blog to download the powerpoint and instructions.  pilotgcseradicalgeography.co.uk

We would be interested to know what you thought of Tony's great idea, so please leave a comment below and tell us how you used or will use this resource.

Mandy:)

How good are you at parking a car?

http://www.107.peugeot.co.uk/peugeot.swf

Mandy:)

What are your top ICT tips?

My favourite include:

Using the  F11 key when viewing webpage on the interactive whiteboard. It throws back all the navigation buttons and address bar so that you maximise the view of the webpage.

Using the Print Screen key "PrtSc" on the top right of a keyboard. It captures the screen you are working on. Useful for capturing webpages or a document which has frozen.

How to use the Print Screen key "PrtSc"
Press the key and then go into your IWB software, Textease, Word, PowerPoint ... and click Paste to drop the screen captured image. 

Mandy:)

www.bekonscot.com/virtual_village/  is great fun, and a welcome alternative to MyWorld Make a Town. It fits into the Modelling (Year 1) and Simulation (Year 3) units, and possibly has some relevance in Geography!

Click a building or feature, then click on the map to place it. Click on the train to send it on its way. NB On the Options tab, you can turn off the irritating background sound, but you have to do this each time.

Mandy:)

Learning with ICT in a typical UK primary school consists of an ICT suite with on average 15 PCs.  Katy Potts (Primary Manager ICT, Cambridge Education) suggests schools need to make a leap of faith away from the traditional ICT suite.  To read the full article go to: http://future.ncsl.org.uk/News.aspx?ID=151

With increasing numbers of schools using mobile devices, can we really do away with ICT suites as she suggests?  How will discrete ICT lessons be taught?  Please do share your thoughts.

Sound effects

www.soungle.com

Soungle is a free site, developed by Southern Codes, for finding all kind of sound FX and musical instruments samples from their mega online library. As different from most of similar sites, Soungle is NOT a Web search engine. It only searches in their growing monster database. Our goals are to keep it simple to use (search, preview and download) and to keep it free. All sounds, their sound effects and samples, are royalty free for downloading.

Keyword searches are performed by entering any word or phrase in a search box. The retrieved results of a keyword search are displayed ten to a page. Clicking on play icon allows you to preview a file. Download button instantly downloads the sound effect or musical instrument sample file. A short description of the sound appears on top of every sound , followed by the frame rate, duration and bit rate.

Please evaluate any searches fully before you use them with your students. Children should always be supervised by a responsible adult when using the Internet.

The Kent Dig IT project is an exciting opportunity for Key Stage 2 pupils to investigate and write about the people and events associated with some of Kent's most famous historical sites. Schools on the project have chosen to take part in an activity day at one of three sites:

1. Richborough Roman Fort
   Theme: Invaders at Dawn
   Activities:
   The Fort -  The fort and the Arch
   Daily life of a soldier -  The end of the journey for Marcus
   Looking at artefacts - Roman Artefacts and Relics
   What did the fort look like? - Living in the fort
   Maps and the local area - What happened to the sea?
   Archaeological Activity - Learning about the Past
2. Bayham Abbey
   Theme:  The mystery of the missing relics
   Activities
   The abbey church - Getting to know the building
   Daily life of a monk - Meet a Cannon
   Looking at artefacts - Medieval Artefacts and Relics
   Words and Places - Literacy Activity
   Archaeology-  Learning about the Past
   What did the Abbey look like? - Past and Present
3. Lullingstone Roman Villa
   Theme: The strange death of Ludicrous Cantiaci
   Activities
   The Villa  - Where did Ludicrous eat/sleep?
   Daily life in the Villa -  Life of a wealthy Roman
   Looking at artefacts -  Artefacts and Relics
   What did the villa look like? - Art Activity
   Clues in the coffin - Meet Ludicrous
   Mosaics - Sketching

Before each activity day, project schools are using the diary of a Roman soldier or diary of a monk, to prepare their pupils and pupils are asking the soldier or the monk questions about their lives, using the project forum.

Following the “Activity Day” pupils will be taking part in an online FlashMeeting with Ian, History Advisor (an opportunity for pupils to ask further questions linked to the event) and to take part in an online Workshop with Marion Green (Canterbury Archaeological Trust.)

All schools on the project should have received an email by now with details about each day. If your school hasn't, please email  Philip Bracegirdle or Mandy Barrow at the usual Kent email address.

Follow this link to read more about the project

Mandy:)

 Make IT Happy is the 3rd annual competition for 9-11 year olds that celebrates the technology talents of the UK's primary schools.

12 regional and national winners across the UK will each win £1,200 and the chance to compete for an additional £4,000 October awards ceremony held at the Houses of Parliament.

Judges, including representatives from Google, BBC, DCSF and BT, will be looking for original ideas about how students would use IT to make people smile.

Register online now for your free happy kit and find out how to use your schools technology talents to Make IT Happy and win up to £5,200!
http://makeithappy.cc4g.net/

• Virtual PE Teacher and Dance Exercise Instructor
• Dane-Elec ZPen
• VIPRO Glass-Hardscreen
• MS Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000
• ACER DX900
• Ultra Mobile Personal Computers
• Twitter
• Apple iPhone
• Wireless Broadband USB devicesWii Fit Balance Board

To read more go to http://www.andertontiger.com/technology

ICT Games

www.ictgames.com

ICTgames.com is run by James Barrett, Kent ICT Project Teacher. The website contains many numeracy and literacy games created by James in his spare time. Although mainly aimed at early years and key stage 1 pupils, some games suitable are for key stage 2 pupils too.

Have you seen?

Day and Night - new resource

Funky Mummy - hugely popular

Behaviour monitor

Multi Bounce - times table
Put the red x close to the answer

(James also creates the games on the Kent ICT website. He creates the Kent ICT games during working hours in between teaching in primary schools around Kent.)

2Simple's brand new program, 2Do It Yourself (2DIY), lets you and your primary pupils create your own cross curricular, Flash resources in minutes. Pupil's at Downs Primary School have been busy creating games using 2DIY. You can see their work on the Down's school website.
http://www.downs.kent.sch.uk/page_viewer.asp?page=Video+Games&pid=33

Have other Kent schools published any 2DIY activites on their website? (please leave a comment below)

2DIY Competition
TESconnect partner with 2Simple have launched a competition where the winner can win a laptop with all the 2Simple products installed.
Click here to find out more

Examples of activites created using 2DIY
There are many excellent examples of activities created using 2DiY on the 2Simple website. They show a wide range of the many possibilities that can be achieved using this fantastic software by children (and adults).
http://www.2simple.com/2diy/examples/

Action Scripts
Children can alter the action script of their games by right clicking on the green play button in 2DIY
Support with 2DIY Action script 

Mandy:)