In Kent, we have many schools eager to use the computer game 'Myst', after being inspired by Tim Rylands at our recent ICT Conference. January 2008 is the official launch of Kent's writing project using the computer game Myst, when we will be inviting Tim back to Kent to run a series of workshops and lesson observations.
Whether you are joining in with the official launch or considering doing a unit of work using Myst, I am sure you will find the following two websites interesting:
A Myst project in Scotland
A case study looking at the use of the Myst game in schools in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Have a look to see how paired writing tasks were initiated and how it has motivated reluctant writers to write.
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ICTineducation/gamesbasedlearning/sharingpractice/myst/introduction.asp
How a class teacher used launched a mini project in his classroom
Tom Barrett, an inspiration classroom teacher, has written his reflections on making a start with a games based learning approach to writing using Myst.
Emerging from the Myst: Being inspired and making a start. ( Tom Barrett, writes about his experience of ict in the classroom on his blog. It is well worth reading!)
Please let us know if you come across other Myst resources on the internet.
Google has launched Lively, a new social network built around the concept of each user creating an avatar and a personal virtual room that can be embedded anywhere on the Web. Although, as with all pupblic chatroom, we can't see Lively being a safe tool to use it schools, it is being used with educators to meet and chat.
Getting Started
To use Lively, you need to sign up using a Google account and download a browser plug-in. From there, you are able to create your own avatar – starting from a “template” character which then has customizable attributes like skin tone, hair colour, and eye colours. You can also dress your character with clothing and accessories.
Teachers
A special room, EducBlogger Lounge has been created by Frank from Mexico for fellow educators and Twitters to meet. If you do decide to try out Lively please drop by. Click here to go directly to the room.
The clock will be turned back to Victorian times again at the Museum of Kent Life in October. Children will take part in a carousel of 6 workshops with a Victorian theme.
This year's workshops are The Victorian Dinnertable, Meet the Toymaker, Victorian Schoolroom, See the Blacksmith at work, What happened in the Scullery, and Learn a Victorian dance.
Children are encouraged to come dressed up in Victorian costume to heighten the atmosphere. We have been able to keep our cost the same as last year at £7 per child. This includes admission to the Museum and all 6 workshops. All teachers and helpers come free of charge.
Dates still available are 13 October and 15 October 2008. Times of programme are 10:00 - 14:00. If sufficient interest, more days in the week starting 17 November 2008 will be added.
For more information or to book, please contact the Learning & Access Officers Claire or Marieke on 01622 621246 or visitors2@museum-kentlife.co.uk.
From 31 July 2008 the national contract which provides the British Pathe film archive to schools at zero cost will end. Schools may continue to use downloaded film material to the end of August 2009. After that date such material will have to be deleted. The low resolution film material will still be available.
For further information, please see attached document.
British Pathe Letter [Size: 96Kb] .
The Downs CE Primary School's Wiki
http://thedowns.wikispaces.com/
Planning for an ICT Club has just got easier with the help of Mark Warner, at The Down's Primary school.
Wikis, like other tools (content management systems, weblogs), are being used by educators as effective teaching and learning tools. The Downs Primary School in Walmer, Kent have created a very interesting and useful Wiki on resources for ICT Clubs.
Many schools have approached me asking where they can find avatars for their children to use on the internet instead of using photos. Have a look at The Downs Web Generator page for links to a variety of websites.
After Tim's inspirational afternoon presentation at the EIS ICT Conference, we are inviting Tim down to Kent for the last two weeks of January 2009 to kick start a whole unit on using Myst to develop Literacy and ICT skills.
Tim will be visiting Maidstone, Tonbridge, Malling, Darford East, Cranbrook & PW and Tun Wells in January and we have space for three more Clusters. To register your school's / Clusters interest please leave a comment below or email mandy dot barrow at kent dot gov dot uk.
Tim will also be visiting Canterbury and Ashford, but at a different time.
BBC News item on Tim
A two week block will be kicked started with a Myst training day for 200 teachers. This would be followed by teachers being invited to observe Tim in action teaching Year1/2 , Year3/4 and Year 5/6 classes throughout West/Mid Kent. Observations will take place in school halls so that 30 teachers can attend each session. Schools taking part must be prepared to share pupil's work via the internet.
Not sure whether to get involved or not?
“Vocabulary, especially descriptive, has improved considerably.....
Sentence construction is better and they are more willing to have a go with punctuation. Their writing is much more interesting and they think more carefully about the content. Spelling still needs improving but then so does myne”
“Myst has improved my confidence in teaching writing and added a much more creative approach to writing and literacy.”
“Children are naturally writing in paragraphs!”
“Boys have been really motivated”
“Great SAT’s results!”
Visit Tim's web site to view some samples of students' writing e.g.
‘I stepped out into a landscape of almost unbearable beauty, a feathered sky stretching out across the silken sea, warm sand beneath my feet. Turning, I saw steps, foot worn and timeless, winding downwards. Where would they lead me?’
Ben, aged 10
You can also read about what the press say, the impact on pupil attainment and also see Tim in action on YouTube.
http://www.timrylands.com/html/media.html
www.bishopsinaction.com
The bishops of the Anglican church worldwide meet at the Lambeth conference every ten years to discuss issues which concern the church and pray together.
The ‘Bishops in Action’ website:
- contains material for Religious Education, particularly at KS2
- includes powerpoints for the interactive whiteboard, photos, posters and fact files about bishops and their role in the church
- encourages multi-cultural, global perspectives in teaching about Christianity
- provides 5 acts of Collective Worship for Primary schools
The Kent ICT Conference was another huge success with the added bonus of an afternoon enthralled with the imaginative ideas of Tim Ryland. Tim, who is mainly well known through his work using Myst to inspire children’s writing, captured his audience attention right from the start with his wit and imagination and, over two hours later, we all left wanting to know more! ThanksTim.
Click here to visit Tim's blog about his afternoon with us.
"WOW!! It’s a mark of a good afternoon when 2 hours vanish as quickly as 5 minutes. Great resources and ideas presented in such an inspirational and witty way. I’ve aleady used the powerpoint idea of making notes - brilliant! Have ordered my myst game and can’t wait for the new term to start."
Sonja Weed
"I was lucky enough to have a day out of school visiting the Kent ICT conference. This was a chance for me to find out more about VLEs, and to explore any new and exciting ideas / products available. The highlight of the day though, and the bit that I was looking forward to the most, was definitely the afternoon session with Tim Rylands."
Mark Warner, teacher at The Downs School and creator of Teaching ideas website.
Read more about Mark's thoughts on the day and Tim's presentation
Just to let you know the 2 Simple offer for the entire software collection at £999 will end on July 15th. For more information visit http://www.2simple.com/
Many congratulations to Madginford Park Junior School. The school achieved a magnificant third place in the Primary category of National Finals in the Jaguar Cars Maths in Motion Challenge.
On 26th June four year 6 boys travelled to Warwickshire to take part in the national final. It began 5 months ago with over 100,000 entrants! The boys won themselves an mp3 player, trophy and goody bag as well as some useful ICT equipment for the school.
Well done from all of us at Kent NGfL.
“Visualgeography.com lets you explore the world through images, flags, money, language, maps and other information.”
View photos of a country, listen to the native language of that area, learn more about transportation, education, religion, people, etc
Ideal for use on the interactive whiteboard for introducing a topic on a country or comparing countries.
You may like to start with exploring China, in preparation for the Olympics.
Click here to visit our other "Website of the Week"
Click here to visit our Olympic Resources
A new report, compiled for Childnet International and funded by Becta, has been launched providing teachers and lecturers with a comprehensive guide to social networking services. It includes an evaluation tool designed to walk teachers through key features of sites they may like to consider using to support teaching and learning.
The report Young People and Social Networking Services is available from the Digizen website.
http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/
Jackets to fit on your Bee Bot
-
There's an
aeroplane to use if you are having a Seaside or Holidays topic. The engines drag on the floor though, so I wouldn't bother with them unless you are really enjoying yourself.
-
There is also a
Handa's Surprise jacket. This one includes a basket where you can put the fruit. (Handa herself needs to be found elsewhere on the Internet, then cut out and glued onto the jacket).
-
-
Finally, in the
Beebot Jacket game you can find pre-made jackets for
Elmer,
The Gingerbread Man and a
Police Car.
All of the jackets work best if you place a piece of BluTack behind the Bee Bot's eyes. I like to give the children a 15cm square of corrugated cardboard. Then they can make their own track or map.
For these and other Bee Bot resources visit:
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/ict/control/beebot/
ICT2008 Exhibition and Conference
Ashford International Hotel
Thursday 3 July 2008
www.eiskent.co.uk
Guest speaker Tim Rylands
Tim Rylands has been described as “an extremely gifted and inspirational teacher, with a love of the creative potential of technology and an excellent rapport with his pupils”. He has gained notable recognition for using the games in the Myst series to inspire children’s creative confidence in many areas of the curriculum e.g. creative writing, speaking and listening, music and art.
http://www.timrylands.com/
For more information and booking visit:
http://www.eiskent.co.uk/
The Kented website has been moved onto the Kent servers and we are presently experiencing problems editing pages. So .....
Please find below our website of the week for this week:
Tikatok is a free creative community for kids under 13 where they can write, illustrate, and share their original stories, and have them printed out into real hardcover and paperback books. It was developed by two mothers to encourage the imagination and creativity of their children and children everywhere.
Click here to see our example of a book (Click on fullscreen).
PS. I hope this fantastic resource is not blocked in schools.
Previous websites of the week
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/siteoftheweek
Taggalaxy is one of many online tools that that is a search engine for Flickr. ( Flickr is a photo sharing site powered by Yahoo! that allows users to upload and share their photos.
http://taggalaxy.de/
The way it works is that you type in your key word e.g. Egypt and Taggalaxy finds all of the photos on Flickr which has that key word in its Tags and then presentsthem all as planets which you can manipulate with the mouse. Click on a planet to zoom in.
Taggalaxy, among other things could be used as a stimulus for creative writing or class discussion.
As with all resources on the internet, it is vital that you check before showing your class. Taggalaxy randomly chooses photographs. You need to make sure that these photos are suitable for your pupils.
Other online tools based on flickr include: Flickrcc,(search Flickr) PhotoSoup (wordsearch), Bubblr (create a comic strip from the photos) and 10 by 10 (photos in the news).
Most schools use clipart for presentations on their interactive whiteboards. Schools should now be considering using photos that are in the public domain or licensed under a creative commons license and making sure, of course, attribution is given to the author. For creative common searches on flickr try http://flickr.com/creativecommons.
Christina Laun on the College@Home blog has compiled a list of 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner. This is a very useful list and highlights the wide range of tools we have available to us to meet the needs of different “learning styles".
Christine list the tools under the following headings:
Visual Learners
Mind Mapping
Charting and diagrams
Videos and Photos
Auditory Learners
Podcasts
Presentation Tools
Audio Tools
Text Readers
Audio Books
Kinesthetic Learners
Note Taking Tools
Bookmarking
Ineraction
Collaboration
We first had You Tube, then Teacher Tube and now we have Schools Tube.
http://www.schoolstube.com/ (Hopefully the site is not blocked)
I have been watching the Vikings this morning and also a stream in Ashford!
What better way to get your pupils fired up about science than to take them through a real murder mystery? Crime Scene Investigation follows one school who, with the help of experts, did just this.
This four part series begins with Planning the Crime, its dramatisation, and the pupils arriving at school to find an unusual scene.
Follow Wylde Green Primary School as they take Year 6 through Collecting the Evidence, DNA Fingerprinting and then deciding on The Verdict.
Described by viewers as 'imaginative' and 'fantastic', Crime Scene Investigation is a compelling and innovative series designed to inspire you and your class.
Click on the links below to watch online
Planning the Crime - An innovative task turns Year 6 pupils into forensic scientists
Collecting the Evidence - Pupils gather forensic evidence after discovering a crime scene
DNA Fingerprinting - Will DNA testing finally reveal the school burglar?
Verdict - All the suspects are brought before the Year 6 pupils as they present the evidence gathered during the investigation.
Sparklebox is a a fantastic place where you can download all sorts of teaching resources. All their resources are now free.
Link: Sparklebox K s 1
Link: Sparklebox Ks 2
As part of the 2Simple ' 10 Year Birthday Celebrations' , for short period of time schools are able to purchase site licences for the entire collection of 2Simple software (28 titles and 2 online titles that could be used at home) for either £999 (existing customers) or £1499 (new customers). A huge saving on some excellent teacher friendly software.
For more information on this offer, visit www.2simple.com/collection/
Products highlighted by the Kent ICT team are those recommended to us by schools and/or where suppliers have offered significant discounts to our schools. It is not our intention to tell schools what to buy and we acknowledge there are many other equally good products available. Schools should conduct their own evaluation of hardware / software prior to making decisions about purchasing.
Tutpup is an exciting and new safe way of playing games against children in the UK and across the world. It is free, has no ads, doesn't grab kids personal data and allows them to play competitive maths games against their friends or students from around the world in a safe educational environment. For example, they could try a division game and find themselves instantly challenged by a child in India!
Children cannot:
- Send messages to other players.
- Use their own names. When a child registers to use Tutpup they choose a unique screen name, a combination of a colour, animal and number
All they can do is play games.
http://tutpup.com/
For those who were unaware or missed it on TV on Monday night, Panorama followed up their “One Click from Danger” episode to show how they were able to assist with the arrest of an offender when they posted the fake details of a teenage girl on social networking sites – very interesting viewing. Below is the link to watch/download it via BBC’s iplayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b00bv3fm.shtml?src=ip_mp
Corbis is offering free PDF templates for real working 35mm pinhole cameras. There are six fantastic artistic templates to choose from.
Pinhole cameras work wonderfully on a bright sunny day. Let's hope summer is just around the corner after the wet week we have just had.
The templates can be downloaded from
http://www.corbis.readymech.com/en
Adventure Rock is a 3D virtual environment offering exploration and creative opportunities for children to experiment with music, drawing and animation. The online world is a themed island built for the BBC’s CBBC. Children explore the world and use message boards so they can share what they find and what they make in the various creative studios dotted around the virtual space. The virtual world does not allow chat. BBC wants to protect children and thus disable any communication between the game users and potential sexual offenders.
For more information and to download the game visit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/adventurerock/
Ideal for a computer/lunch time club.
How to upgrade to the new version of the Smartboard Software - Notebook 10
To activate and get hold of the full version, you will need to know the serial number of your Smartboard (or other Smart product such as an Airliner slate) and visit the registration page. One serial number will do multiple installations - so you can still activate your classroom version and your home version for preparation purposes.
Serial number is found under the pen tray and looks like the following (x = a number)
SBxxx-xxxxx
The link to the registration page is below. After entering the serial number and filling in the registration form you will be sent an email with a product Key. This key can be used to download the software on other machines using Smart products in your school.
http://smarttech.com/nb10productkey/
NB. You need to download the software and drivers. You may find the drivers are automatically downloaded along with the software. The drivers are needed to control and connect to the board.
A hands on guide to Notebook 10 can be downloadd from
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/ict/IWB/smart.htm
Congratulations go to the year 6 boys at Madginford Juniors who have got through to the final of the Jaguar Cars Maths Challenge. Over the last few months they have been engaged in an exciting and motivating mathsbased project and have been inspired by what they have been doing.
The Challenge involves students working together in small teams, who compete against each other in an effort to win a Grand Prix type race and become U.K. Champions. This activity involves using a wide variety of basic mathematical skills ranging from the measurement of angles and scale to the use of percentages and higher level key skills.
To find out more visit
http://www.mathschallenge.co.uk/
TOTTON SCHOOLS EDUCATIONAL ICT WEBSITE contains short flash tutorials on a variety of different software and hardware that are great for refreshing how to do somehing or for learning step by step.
Software/Hardware covered include:
Inspiration, Spreadsheets, Logo Log IT Explorer, Publisher 2003, Junior Viewpoint, Flowol3, Digital Blue, Junior Librarian, Adding sound to various applications, Audacity, PowerPoint, Word, Flexi tree 2, Moodle
http://www.tottonsch.co.uk/videos/
How did we find this great resource?
With thanks to Mark Warner for discovering this valuable resource and for posting a link on his del.icio.us site so we could pick it up on the kented network on del.icio.us.
We are kented on del.icio.us
Click here to Add us to your network
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/
Doctor Who is very popular with a lot of pupils. Here is the link to the BBC where pupils can create their own trailer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/trailermaker/
A great activity to do during an ICT Club.
This site and many more have been added to kented on del.icio.us
Add us to your network
To find out more about del.icio.us click here
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/
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