Kent ICT Blog

Here is a list of some of the many websites mention at the Kent ICT Conference. Please feel free to leave a comment with any I may have missed

www.fightingmalaria.info - panoromas of Central hospital – district of Kangaba
Can navigate yourself or waite for a running commentary.

http://www.switcheroozoo.com/ Visit nine different habitats and make new animals in each. While you play, you can read facts about each of the animals in your current combination. Learn more about the animals by reading their Profiles in the Resources section.

http://www.wordle.net/ - why not copy and paste pupil's work into it and see which words they most often use.

http://www.wordsift.com/ - A bit like wordle but with more features. Copy and paste text into it. Shows 50 most common words in the text. Click on any words and then move down the page to see more information about each word. You will find images, a word web with definitions and if you go further down the page you can find example sentences from the text that use the word.

http://taggalaxy.de/ - type in a word to browse through Flickr photos in 3D worlds with this flash application. Please remember to review before showing pupils.

http://bambuser.com/  - Stream video live from your mobile (iphone) to the web

 www.ideastoinspire.co.uk - the name says it all.

http://voicethread.com/ - record children talking on a particular topic.

http://etherpad.com/ - real time collaborative writing. Each person (up to eight) has their own colour highlight.

We wish Tim a speedy recovery after being taken to hospital with a poorly knee following the conference today

Take a digital image and make it talk? Easier than you might think. CrazyTalk 6 is an easy and powerful tool for generating talking characters from an image or photo and facial animation for video, websites and widget. Many schools are using to bring photos alive in projects across Kent.

http://www.taglearning.com/productdetails/Crazy+Talk+6.html

The software retails at £34 per licence, but if we can get enough interested Kent schools together and buy at least 300 licences (e.g. 20 schools buying 15 licences each) the cost drops to only  £9.67 per licence. This should be easy with over 500 schools in Kent. Please note this offer is for the standard version (not the more expensive pro version)

Would you like to buy Crazy Talk this term at the special price of £9.67?
To register you interest please send an email with your school name and number of licences you would like to me at 
As soon as we have enough for 300, I will contact Tag Learning who will then send you a confirmation via email.

Closing date: Wednesday 8th July 2009  (This is so we can process the orders before the end of term)

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.

Date:  Friday 10 July 2009

Time: 9:15 Coffee for a 9:30 start  (Finish by 4pm)

Venue: Hugh Christie Technology College, White Cottage Road, Tonbridge Kent TN10  4PU  

Trainer: Selda Ziya,  Promethean Teaching & Learning Consultant (TLC) 

Lunch: Participants to bring their own packed lunch

Cost: Free to Kent Schools

This will be a hands‐on workshop where participants learn how to make the most out of their interactive whiteboard. Selda will be sharing her tips and tricks on creating stimulating flipcharts and participants will be using these to create resources ready to use back in school from September. Participants need to come prepared with a plan and lesson objective. The session is open to all Key stages and the resources created will be shared and uploaded to the Kent and Planet websites.

During the day we will be using Promethean’s new ActivInspire,an easy-to-use software package designed to be adaptable to a teacher’s experience, subject matter or teaching style. The software can be used on all makes of board.

AtivInspire is available in two versions: Personal and Professional. The Personal Edition is free to everyone for download and includes a breadth of features and functionality, including new browsers that make lesson planning quicker and easier.

To book a place on this workshop please contact   Tel: 01622 203800 ext 292 
 by Tuesday 7 July at the very latest

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

Heritage Explorer - Images for Learning

www.heritageexplorer.org.uk

Heritage Explorer is an image-based resource for teaching history, citizenship and many more subjects. Teachers can access classroom-ready materials at the click of a button. Choose from over 360,000 pictures, including historic views of daily life, aerial photography, and modern shots of listed buildings. Images are accompanied by accessible information and a range of teaching ideas.

A range of case studies and 'How to' guides provide useful information on how to get the most out of Heritage Explorer and tailor the resources to suit specific teaching and learning needs.

All of the images are copyright cleared and free to use for educational purposes.  They can be copied or saved.  For further information please see Terms and Conditions.

Why not search images by theme or take a look at the ready made interactive whiteboard resources.

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/

A chance to see Tim Rylands using a journalistic approach to teach Year 8 and Year 10 students. Although this event is primarily aimed at secondary school teachers, it will also give Year 6 teachers / Literacy Coordniators more ideas and ways of using Myst IV with pupils.

Friday 3rd July at Hillview School for Girls in Tonbridge

The timetable for the demo day is as follows:

• 9.30 to 11.00:  A mixed ability y8 lesson - plus informal question and answer session with Tim.
• 11.30 til 13.00: - A mixed ability y10 lesson - plus informal question and answer session with Tim

To book a place contact Maryan Wyles
01622 203800 ext 292            Email maryan.wyles@kent.gov.uk

The 20th annual ICT Exhibition and Conference will take place on 2 July 2009 at the Ashford International Hotel.  Established in 1990, the annual Kent ICT exhibition and conference encourages and extends the effective use of ICT in education. The exhibition will show products and services from over 60 companies.

Entry to the Exhibition is FREE - Follow this link to view the exhibitors (Word doc)
No pre-booking is required – just turn up on the day! The exhibition opens at 9.00 am and closes at 5.30 pm.

Entry to the Conference
Fees are payable to attend the conference (£65 per person for contract schools and £85 for non contract schools) and places must be pre-booked. Fees include refreshments and lunch. Places for the conference are limited so please ASAP..

Follow this link to download the conference program (pdf)

Follow this link to book a place

Keynote speaker: John Davitt - New Tools for Learning
John Davitt is a writer, broadcaster and a digital toolmaker. He has worked in the education sector for the last twenty–five years as an English teacher, senior manager and regional adviser with the EU Flexible Learning Project. As a journalist he wrote for the UK Guardian, The Times and The Observer, with a regular feature in the Education Guardian.

John has worked extensively with teachers in schools in UK, China and Africa and he is committed to levelling the playing field regarding access to new learning opportunities. He is the author of the book "New Tools for Learning" (2006), a practical guide as to how to make the technology fit the learning need and the WordRoot CD – an interactive guide to words and their etymology. He has recently developed The Learning Score a visual tool that lets teachers map out and share learning intentions as a graphical event – rather like a music score.

His latest project is the Learning Event Generator and the Rag – an interactive learning tool for the iPhone where you can literally shake up a learning challenge. His latest book is  ‘Setting Learning Free – The Difference Engine runs again’ .
John's website http://newtools.org/

Tim Boundy – JANET - Video conferencing
Many UK Museums, Galleries and Archives now use videoconferencing to deliver exciting educational content to UK schools. JANET Videoconferencing Service enables UK schools to arrange all aspects of their own videoconferences at no charge.

Tim Rylands - ICT to Inspire
Showcase of Tim’s work in Kent to engage, innovate and inspire! 

Mandy:)

“An opportunity for young artists everywhere!”

Weather Watch Art Week is an opportunity for your pupils to publish their photographs of their 2and 3-D Art Work on the National Education Network Gallery and share their work with other schools in Kent and across the Globe!

Pupil's of all ages can publish their weather art on the NEN Gallery

Pupil’s work can include:

Paintings, drawings, clay models, prints, hanging mobiles, collage, textiles and 3-D structures

For more information about the event click on the link below or contact:

Weather Watch Art Week

Phil Bracegirdle (ASK ICT Hands on Support Consultant)

E-mail: philip.bracegirdle@kent.gov.uk  

FlashMeeting Presenter enables users to display on the screen for all to see during a web conference digital images taken by pupils and teachers. Just click on the snaps tab near the top of the screen to view the images that were used during this FlashMeeting.

What does Archaeology tell us about life in Roman Kent - A Flashmeeting with Marion Green (Canterbury Archaeological Trust Education Officer)

Marion FlashMeeting with pupils from Adisham Primary School, Canterbury.

Dig IT

Pupils taking part in the DIG IT 2009 have used FlashMeeting to ask Marion questions about the artefacts they have been loaned from the Trust. The artefacts contain clues about what life was like in Roman and Medieval Kent. For more information about the project visit the DIG IT web-site.

Click here to visit the Dig IT web-site

Years 3, 4 and 5 pupils at Woodgrove primary school in Sittingbourne and The Haig School, Germany today used Flashmeeting to web conference and ask Andrew Richardson (Canterbury Archaeological Trust) questions about life in Anglo-Saxon Kent. To replay the session click on the link below.

A FlashMeeting with Andrew Richardson

 Pupils at Woodgrove Primary FlashMeeting with The Haig School Germany

The "Getting to Know You" project is a "trial" project involving three primary schools from Kent (Cheriton, Frittenden and Woodgrove) and three SCE Schools in Germany that involves the pupils every fortnight using FlashMeeting to share information about their local community.

Click here to visit the SCE web-site

For more information about the project contact: Phil Bracegirdle ICT "Hands on Support"

E-mail: philip.bracegirdle@kent.gov.uk

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:)

Learning Clip

www.learningclip.co.uk

Learning Clip is an online resource to support Y3-5 teachers implementing the renewed primary mathematics framework.

The resources are structured to follow precisely the learning objectives of the renewed framework. For ease of navigation the resources are also listed by topic.

The clips are being offered free of charge to all schools during the development phase. You need to register (free)to have full access to the resources.

To celebrate Safer Internet Day 09, CEOP’s Thinkuknow programme developed two interactive assemblies to protect, educate and empower children and young people from harm relating to online issues. Simply download the file to your desktop or burn to disc and play in Windows Media Player or Quicktime.  Each assembly lasts approx 10 minutes and the target audiences for these are 8-10 year olds and 11-16 year olds.   As part of the download you will receive a sheet on session aims, learning outcomes and suggested pre-film activities. 

To Download:

1. Log into the Thinkuknow website – visit www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers and enter your details in the black area at the top of the page.
2. Click on the ‘Resources’ tab.
3. At the top of the resources list, select the appropriate resource list for your age-group.
4. Select the Assembly download, click ‘Add’ and then select ‘Confirm Order’.
5. Right-click on the green download link in the Download area. Select ‘Save As’ to ensure you can access the assembly once downloading is complete.

What is the La Mantra Talking Pen?

The Talking Pen is an mp3 player that can store and play audio files. It has a tip that can read tiny microdots impregnated into paper. Books and charts can be prepared that deliver audio content to the user via ‘hotspots’ on the printed surface.

Frequently in schools these pens are used to support EAL pupils. Many members of the Kent MCAS Team (Minority Communities Achievement Team) now have and use these pens in schools to develop pupils speaking and reading skills. For more information about the pen click here

or visit The Mantra Lingua web-site

Saving and Sharing MP3 recordings

Do you want to replay and share recorded mp3 files? To download and play/share recordings users will need to install the SHARP G.726 Audio Decoder. To download the required codec click on the link below.

Sharp G.726 Codec

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.

Mandy:)

27 schools from Kent and around the World took part in the "24 hour weather around the World Blog." Publishing comments and images of the weather on the project blog, NEN Gallery and Google Maps the activity highlights how new technologies and digital resources enable pupils to quickly and effectively share their learning with others.

 Pupils at Peponi House School, Kenya checking the midday temperature

To view the pupils work and read a full report on this activity click here

Based on this year's trial we hope to repeat the activity again in the Autumn Term. 

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:)

Tim Rylands will be speaking at this years EIS conference on 2 July. Part of his session will be schools showcasing their Myst work. If your school is in interested in sending a member of staff (and maybe three pupils) to present their work, please contact Tim tim@timrylands.com  07798890475 before 5 June.

In response to the Lord Laming report entitled The Protection of Children in England, the new inspection framework for September 2009 will have a stronger focus on safeguarding.  This will include a grading from 1 (outstanding) to 4 (inadequate) for a school's arrangements.  Any school which receives a grade 4 will also be likely to be awarded an inadequate grade for its overall performance. 

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/

Thirty Kent primary schools are taking part in DIG IT 2009 project. Dig IT is a joint project involving the Advisory Service Kent and English Heritage (EH.) An opportunity for Key Stage 2 pupil’s to become history detectives and discover who has lived and settled in Kent over the past 2000 years.

Pupil’s from seven Kent primary schools attended the Activity Day at Richborough Castle, Sandwich on Wednesday 20th May 2009. During the morning the pupils took part in a range of enquiry based activities (linked to the Key Questions listed below) led by Ian Coulson (ASK History Advisor) and staff from English Heritage, Canterbury Archaeological and Wessex Archaeological Trusts.

Key Questions

1. How has the area changed over the past 2000 years?
2. What did the town Richborough look like 200 years ago?
3. Describe the daily life of a Roman Soldier?

Morning Workshops
The fort and the Arch
Daily life of a soldier
Roman Artefacts and Relics
 Living in the fort
Maps and the local area  - What happened to the sea?
Archaeological Activity - Learning about the Past 

Afternoon Activities
Following lunch the pupils were introduced to Marcus a Roman Legionary. Besides learning about life under Roman Rule the pupils practiced some of the marching skills used by the legions in battle.

Story writing
Next term the pupils will be writing and publishing on the Making the News website stories about “The Battle of Richborough” re-telling the storming of the town by the Jutes.

To help the pupils plan their stories they spent the final part of the day in the castle creating “freeze frames” and discussing: 

• Why did the Jutes want to invade Britain?
• Which part of the town would the Jutes have attached first?
• What weapons would the attackers and defenders have used?
• How would the Roman soldiers have defended the outer walls?
• Why was the siege ultimately successful?

Richborough Castle

Photos from the day

Richborough Castle Follow-Up FlashMeeting Activities

Visit the main Dig IT website

The Children's Museum

www.childrensmuseum.org

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis has a website with some very fun games and activities.

Play Games

Our favourite is - Bones: An exhibit inside you.
www.childrensmuseum.org/special_exhibits/bones/

There is also a good webquest on dinosaurs - Dinosphere
www.childrensmuseum.org/dinosphere/webquests/gorgo/
There are other activities on dinosaurs too Click here

Who's your Mummy?
www.childrensmuseum.org/games/mummies/html/index.html

Castles
www.childrensmuseum.org/castles/games.php

Create your own Coat of Arms
Asks for a password. We would suggest a class access e.g. class 1 password 123456. Pupils can choose shape, colour and motif.

To see all the other games and activities visit www.childrensmuseum.org/games

Our Collection online - Artifacts
Search through hundreds of photos of artifacts online. Rotate and crop the photos

We have highlighted www.geograph.org.uk before but it is worth mentioning again.  It has grown into a huge resource of pictures freely available under the Creative Commons Licence.  (Many Flickr users have also chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, and you can browse or search through photos under each type of license.)

"The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect a geographically representative photograph for every square kilometre of the British Isles."

The photographs on www.geograph.org.uk can be accessed by clicking an area on the UK map or by searching keywords such as name of place, rivers etc. (The red areas contain photographs.)

Schools are using the site in a variety of ways including using photographs of the local area, coastal areas and UK rivers. When showing photographs of the local area, pupils often can identify where the picture was taken and how near it is to their house.

We would be interested to know if you are using www.geograph.org.uk and your own ideas of using this fantastic resource. Please tell us by leaving a comment below.

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:)

Eye on Idioms is a fun way to introduce students to idioms. Students go through a series of exercises, in which they view the literal representations of an idiom and then examine the metaphorical meanings.

Letter Creator  is a fun way to teach or reinforce letter writing. Students learn the parts of a letter and are led through the process or writing a friendly or business letter.

Other online tools are Circle Story Plot Diagram, Comic Creator, Comparison and Contrast Guide, Persuasion Map,Timeline, and Venn Diagram.  The above list just names a few of the wide variety available. Go and visit the site to see the wide range of tools they have available: http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp

Have you found a useful website to support Literacy lessons?

Mandy:)