Bromley ICT Forum Blog

1.Vamos from Espresso

Module 1 of Espresso’s resource for KS2 Spanish, covering Greetings,In School, the Alphabet, Numbers, days of the week, Festivals and Weather.

Lost of video of native speakers, support activities along with Espresso’s commitment to high quality multimedia.

2. RM Sonica Spanish

Sonica Spanish is an innovative software product commissioned by the DfES. Sonica Spanish is designed to help teachers including modern foreign language (MFL) specialists bring Spanish language into the classroom.

LGFL is hosting 24 of its 240 activities as an online resource for school and home

Like the real world, the online world has good and bad in it. And going online is like going out in the real world. We need to take care. London Grid’s unit on e-safety gives practical advice and activities to help you use the internet safely. Find US Online either through the LGFL Content Grid for ICT (KS2) or go directly to www.usonline.lgfl.net

Now available in the KS2 and 3 ICT menus. www.ict.lgfl.net

“Teachers here in the UK have the job of ensuring that children grow up with an understanding of the interconnectedness of the world and the positive role that they can play in today’s global society.”    Department for International Development/DCSF Bringing the World into the Classroom 2008

 London’s Development Education Centre, the Humanities Education Centre (HEC), based in Tower Hamlets, is working with London Grid for Learning to promote the global dimension and poverty reduction agendas in our schools. It aims to support all groups and providers working in or with schools to frame what they are doing within the global dimension. HEC has been working with Tower Hamlets City Learning Centre and e-Learning Team over the past few years exploring ways of using ICT to deliver the global dimension.

It has now launched a global portal that has areas for teachers and their students to start exploring, across the curriculum issues such as water, gender, health, transport, food, trade, tourism etc, and there are webquests exploring how the DfID works, what is sustainability, how to be a UN Special Rapporteur for human rights…

Visit the Global Portal; book HEC to run a free session for your CLC or PDC or conference or professional development day; or for advice and support contact: e-mail: hec@gn.apc.org  global portal: www.global.lgfl.net

tel: 020 7364 6405                     fax: 020 7364 6422 

website: www.citizenship-pieces.org.uk

http://www.globaldimension.org.uk 

On behalf of

Michael Newman

Global Citizenship Project Worker

Humanities Education Centre and City Learning Centre

Tower Hamlets Professional Development Centre

(from Neil Adams NAACE)

Climate change is very much in the minds of many young people, but how do we know that the dire predictions are true? It’s all about the application of silicon chips rather than crystal balls and gives ICT teachers a route into discussing models, at least with brighter students or as a summary of the principles that have already been taught.

Models are based on variables and rules designed to represent a real world situation, whether of the travel of a roller coaster, the flight of a moon rocket or changes to the environment. The variables represent known quantities like the global temperature and levels of carbon dioxide, whereas rules are mathematical statements of the assumed linkages between the parts of the system. A simple rule may state that if the level of carbon dioxide doubles the global temperature will rise by 2C. Of course it is not so simple, since a further doubling of carbon dioxide would be expected to raise the temperature rather more.

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Mastering E-Pedagogy Part 2 [Ian Usher, extracts]
Today was the second full day of the Certificate in Advanced Educational Practice in E-Pedagogy (try saying that with a mouthful of cake) we’re running in conjunction with Oxford Brookes… One of the most useful pieces of the day for me was Chris Higgins’ presentation on threshold concepts - the theory that in every subject area there are certain concepts which, once mastered, allow the learner to significantly expand their knowledge and understanding in that subject…

I have my own idea of an important threshold concept in the area of E-Learning - that’s the point at which a teacher realises that, in some aspects anyway, their pupils will always know more than them and no matter what the teacher does they’ll never overtake or even catch up with their pupils. That might be something too hard to admit for some people - but if it happens, then it allows teachers to concentrate on understanding:

• what the technology is capable of;
• those areas of competency which pupils aren’t naturally blessed with;
• that the role of a teacher is to guide the use of appropriate tools, rather than necessarily lead in the use of them;
• that if you want something done technically, ask a twelve year old.

… show me a teacher who’s admitted that they’re not going to catch up in everything and I’ll show you someone whose pupils will be far more free to learn by discovery, research & experimentation.
http://moodlea.blogspot.com/2008/02/mastering-e-pedagogy-part-2.html

Further thoughts on the EeePC [From Where is AB?]
“I’ve had my hands on an EeePC before, but only in short bursts - last Thursday and Friday gave me hand on for almost a day and a half. Have I changed my mind about this little wonder?”

[Ed] Andrew Brown considers screen resolution, battery life, the webcam, storage space and the keyboard of the EeePC when used in earnest.
www.whereisab.co.uk/blog/?p=583

Multimedia wordsearch [Nik Peachey]
This is a really nice tool that I have just discovered. It’s called PhotoSoup and it generates wordsearch activities based on any topic in just seconds.

It’s very simple and works on images from flickr. You simply type in your topic and the site automatically generates a word grid and image clues. You then have 90 seconds to find all the words. You can get hints and even get it to show you the answers.

Further comments at http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/02/multimedia-wordsearch.html

Intro to digital storytelling [Joe Dale]
This sweet video shows how easy it is to create digital stories with Windows MovieMaker by scanning in a few images and adding a voiceover. Hope you find it inspiring too.
http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2008/02/intro-to-digita.html

More creativity with the WiiRemote
[Ed] Doug Dickinson has embedded a link to a video of another demonstration of Johnny Lee’s creativity with a WiiRemote. This time it shows the creation of a virtual first person 3D display that moves as you move your head.
www.dougdickinson.co.uk/blog/2008/02/more-creativity-with-wiiremote.html

Reprinted from the NAACE Newsletter

JISC initiated a study involving a combination of examination of data from longitudinal studies and new research to see whether the “Google Generation” (post-1993) approached research tasks in a significantly different way to people from previous cohorts.

They define six types of behaviour:

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Ahh! Three words specifically designed to bring a smile to any Head Teacher’s face! 

iEARN UK works very closely with the British Council and they have advised us that they have funding available to award grants to schools involved in partnerships with other international schools.

Grants are available for reciprocal visits (deadline 1st November) or for specific global curriculum projects (deadline 1st March 2008).

This is the perfect opportunity to enhance your own project links or get involved with an iEARN project to apply for funding.

Visit the  British Council web page today for more information.

Don’t forget to pencil these dates in your diary

ICT 201 Bromley Primary ICT Subject Leaders Forum

Dates

• Thursday November 1st 2007  1.30-4.30pm
• Thursday 13th March 2008,  1.30-4.30pm
• Thursday 12th June 2008, 1.30-4.30pm

Venue: Bromley EDC

ICT202 Bromley ICT Network Managers Forum

Dates

• Wednesday 31st October 2007, 1.30-4.00pm
• Wednesday 23rd January, 1.30-4.00pm
• Wednesday 7th May 2008 1.30-4.00pm

Venue TBA

ICT203/204 Preparing for the ICT Mark

• Tuesday 30th October 2007 4:30-6:30pm
• Wednesday 6th February 4:30-6:30pm

Venue: Bromley EDC

Interactive Whiteboard Training Home Delivery

Free for Bromley Schools. We will come out and deliver training for your staff. Contact Andrew Ferrier for more details.

ICT Project Adventures

Schools are offered the opportunity to participate in a six to eight week project adventure  using Podcasting, film making, animation, online game creation and video conferencing. Contact Andrew Ferrier for more details.

Building a School Virtual Learning Environment with Digitalbrain

Bromley LA is offering a one to four day consultation service to assist schools in moving forward in creating and using their Digitalbrain portal as a VLE. We will visit you and work at your school.

Contact Andrew Ferrier for more details.

At the recent Primary ICT Subject Leaders Forum, delegates were given to the opportunity to see how Click to Meet can be used to facilitate successful conferences.

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Interested in free software to support your school curriculum program?

Below is a comprehensive list of free software resources for teachers. (Thanks to Alison Tanner from Darrick Wood School for this entry).  Are any of you making use of these programs? Do they work well? Share some of your thoughts in the comments area.. Continue Reading »