With the very best wishes for a happy Christmas and a peaceful new year

Do you have any useful websites for children to share?

I have created a form to collect some useful websites for use by after school clubs or as suggestions to parents.  I am particularly looking for sites with no extra advertising around them or chat within them to avoid issues over supervision.

Please note you will need to scroll to find all the questions...



Once I have a selection I will make the list public so that you can share them with colleagues.

Useful Channel 5 videos related to child exploitation

Channel 5 reports on child exploitation issues
http://www.channel5.com/shows/5-news/features-archived/special-report-tackling-online-child-abuse#!

With all the recent focus on issues related to safeguarding and the Internet, I would recommend the link above to get a varied view of the problem (victims, police, paedophiles and kids).

There are 5 videos – each only a few minutes long and worth a few minutes of your time. (If you view then full screen, press Esc at the end of each video to go back to the host page.)

Remember e-safety is not an ICT problem!!

Python - text based coding opportunity

If you've had a look at Kodu and Scratch, which are more visual approaches to programming, you might like to have a look at Codecademy.com where you can get a feel for Python.

Sign up is free after a taster session. You can then develop your (or the children's)understanding in bite sized chunks which take the user gently through the basics of the language.

Need to get your staff using Scratch?

This useful video (hosted on Vimeo) will help your teachers get their heads around some of the possibilities.

Intro to Scratch 2.0 from ScratchEd on Vimeo.

Useful Introduction to KoDu on Prezi

Need a starting point for a staff meeting introducing Kodu to your teachers? 

This Prezi is very helpful in getting the basic principles across and showing the range of resources as well as cross-curricular links e.g. to English.

New thinking for a new academic year?

Many schools will be returning in the next week or so with the exciting prospect of using upgraded or completely new technologies to support learning and teaching.  Some of this will involve mobile technology which in many cases will be iPads or other tablet technology. 

Will this change teaching and learning in the school?  It should!!

If you always do what you've always done without the new technology available to you, you have missed a trick.  Just putting a set of iPads in front of a class of children will not raise standards... neither will reporting to the head teacher that the children are 'very excited' by the new resources.

By providing such resources you are putting much more learning power in the hands of the children and relinquishing some of the power that comes with knowledge.  The balance shifts... or it should. 

Obviously there are basic skills which need to be developed by young children (or non-numerate or non-literate teens and adults for that matter) otherwise how are they going to access all of the resources available to them? 

The blog post here may make interesting reading, with parallels being drawn between Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 with 'Education 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.  Very thought provoking.

Exciting opportunities for schools from Skype

Exploring Oceans: dive into a sea of knowledge with Skype this November

Skype in the classroom has partnered with Fabien Cousteau's Mission 31 to bring sea turtles, sharks and ships into your classroom via Skype. They've revealed the first batch of free Skype lessons with special marine experts on their site, with more to come very soon.

 

Click here to book your ocean-themed lesson for November.
 
You might also like to explore Mystery Skype lessons.  The idea is that 2 classrooms are linked by Skype without the children knowing where the other class is.  They work together to unravel clues that the other class provides which will eventually lead them to discover where in the world the other class is.

Children given the chance to learn to write computer code

I caught this short video on BBC Breakfast TV earlier this week (I was at the gym at the time!!).  It is well worth watching if you are in the process of trying to get your head round the new Computing curriculum. It might be worth showing to colleagues as an introduction to a training session.

ESCape - e-safety play for KS2

Commissioned by Dudley Safeguarding Board, this play from the Saltmine Trust is an enchanting fairytale that teaches the principles of e-Safety.

Sarah lives on the edge of a magical forest, allowed in on her own for the first time she is taught the rules for how to stay safe. There are wolves in the forest and when Sarah meets a stranger all is not as it seems. Will she remember the rules? Or will she leave the path and go her own way?

Are you interested in getting to know more? Watch the video below:

ESCape Promo from Saltmine Trust on Vimeo.

NAACE and CAS support for the Computing curriculum

The wiki published at http://naacecasjointguidance.wikispaces.com/home should be compulsory reading for all teachers embarking on the new Computing curriculum with their pupils!

The explanations of the terminology, examples of learning activities and expansion of the programme of study for each KS are truly invaluable

Change of subject name from ICT to Computing

From the NAACE newsletter 14 June 2013:

Having carefully considered the responses to consultation on the reform of the national curriculum , as well as a range of other relevant factors, the Government has decided to proceed to make the Order to replace ICT with Computing under section 84 and 85 of the Education Act 2002.

ICT as a subject name carries strong negative connotations of a dated and unchallenging curriculum that does not serve the needs and ambitions of pupils. Changing the subject name of ICT to Computing will not only improve the status of the subject but also more accurately reflect the breadth of content included in the new draft programmes of study. Under the legislation which governs the national curriculum, the Secretary of State is required to consult on a draft of the Order necessary to effect these changes. This consultation opened on 3 May and closed on 3 June 2013. It can be accessed at https://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/


Subject to the outcome of this consultation, the final Order will be laid before Parliament and will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. It will therefore need to be debated in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Government is currently considering the responses to the broader national curriculum consultation, including comments on the draft Computing programmes of study.

Later in the summer, the Government will publish revised drafts of the programmes of study and consult on the draft Orders necessary to bring them into force. It is intended that, subject to Parliamentary approval, the new national curriculum will be made available to schools in autumn this year for first teaching from September 2014.

NAACE are working with a range of stakeholders, including publishers, education suppliers, teaching schools, subject associations, unions and professional associations, to make sure that high quality support for Computing becomes available for schools.

The Teaching Agency is working with Initial Teacher Training providers to influence training from 2013/2014 onwards. In addition, the Government has recently announced a £2m programme to train 400 master computer teachers over the next two years.

Please click here to access the full report.

Common Core & Ed Tech: A Summer List of Creative Tools

Common Core & Ed Tech: A Summer List of Creative Tools: For teachers, summer allows time to reflect on what went well during the school year, and where change can take place.  Some useful tools here to consider...

Get On-line at Home

The Get On-line at Home Scheme  http://www.getonlineathome.org/  is specifically targeted at registered charities and individuals who receive at least one of the following benefits to qualify for the cheaper price:

• Housing Benefit
• Income Support
• Jobseeker's allowance
• Pension credit
• Disability Living Allowance
• Attendance Allowance / Constant Attendance Allowance
• Carer’s Allowance
• Incapacity Benefit / Employment and Support Allowance
• Disability element of Working Tax Credit

This might be worth pointing out to some of your school community.

What do you do with an ePub book once you have created it?

Using Book Creator on an iPad is a real revelation to some teachers and their pupils.  It doesn't matter where you are: on a field trip or in a classroom, the story of the activity can easily be brought together and used to provide a simple record, prolong engagement or assess learning.

But if you are a Windows school, what else can you do with it away from the iPad itself?

Using Readium, a free app on the Google Chrome browser, can provide access to your ePubs on PCs.  It renders the book faithfully, maintaining the structure of the book as well as narration, etc.

How do you get it there? Share the book via Gdrive (if you are a Google Apps for Schools user, for example), DropBox or whatever other mechanisms you have set up and use Readium to access it.

Support for Kodu and Scratch

For those of you using Kodu or Scratch to dabble in programming, have a look at the videos on YouTube from Consolarium, Education Scotland's game-based learning initiative. Here's a sample...



The Consolarium, has been working with teachers across Scotland to explore and share just how the appropriate use of computer games can have a positive impact on teaching and learning. More recently, it has been encouraging pupils to become creators - not just consumers - of games with a game design initiative.

A little inspiration to start the term!

One of the highlights of last term's Learning and Teaching Conference at the Chateau Impney was the keynote delivered by Mike Fleetham.  Not a learning technologies focused input but with many applications to teaching across the curriculum. 
For those of you who were unable to attend the Conference have a look at http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/Home.aspx  Create a log in to access a range of the resources and newsletters.  The latest one on differentiation is worth a look.

For those of you who might need to refer back to the previous version of this blog on J2Webby you can find it HERE

Worcestershire's Learning Gateway

We need your help to make the Worcestershire Learning Gateway even more useful!
If you have any favourite websites that you use regularly in the classroom add the url as a comment to this post. Indicate the subject area or theme and the age group you use it with and we can add it to the Free area so that everyone can access tried and tested resources without the effort of having to search for themselves.

On the move again!!

As so many schools in Worcestershire are moving towards Google Apps for Education it seemed a good time to try out another route to blogging.

Watch this space for news relating to Worcestershire specific projects and initiatives as well as national and global moves in the world of Learning Technologies.