What is a blog and can I use it in school?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Teachers Pet Tool for Teachers

I only came across this a few weeks ago but it is a great simple tool and free!!

http://www.teachers-pet.org/

You can do all sorts of stuff all through a macro's in Word......simple but effective...like most things in life! Don't know what a macro is.....don't worry just enjoy!

Here's the list of Teacher's Pet macros: Click on a link to find out more...
Bingo Card Maker
Verb Form Test Maker
Simple Crossword Maker
Single-sided Flashcard Maker
Double-sided Flashcard Maker
Sentence Breaker
Paragraph Breaker
Jumble a Word
Jumble a Sentence
Jumble a List
Multi Word Maker
Multi Gap Maker
Multi Choice Question Maker
Online Dictionary
Online Thesaurus
Online Multi-Word
Antonym Question Maker
Word Mover
Word Remover
Punctuation Remover
Space Remover
Vowel Remover

Discovery.com Teacher Tools

I'm sure many of you will have already come across this great set of tools but just in case you have not take a look.

The site offers a tool to make all types of different puzzles that are great for starters. Make crosswords, wordsearches, maths squares and more....

Take advantage of their pretty good quiz-making tool online. Create and administer quizzes that are graded online and that provide instant feedback to you and your students. A comprehensive set of options gives you lots of flexibility.

Create custom worksheets for almost any subject. In a rush? Use one of our ready-made worksheets created by teachers like you!

Click on this link to see the full range of tools http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/teachingtools.html

e-Learning is galloping ever closer!!!

e-Learning can be defined as 'learning facilitated and supported through the use of information and communications technology'. It can cover a spectrum of activities from the use of technology to support learning as part of a ‘blended’ approach (a combination of traditional and e-learning approaches), to learning that is delivered entirely online. Whatever the technology, however, learning is the vital element.

The amount of advertisements for e-Learning coordinators and Lead Teachers of e-Learning illustrates that this is not going to go away.

I recommend that you take a look at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/jisc%20effective%20practice3.pdf to get a better idea about e-Learning and how it could shape your classroom in the not too distant future if it is not already doing so!

It's an exciting time and I will be giving you some further guidance in this area probably when we hit half term.

Video Conferencing Part 2

As promised following up my previous post on video conferencing, in this post is links that may get your ideas buzzing on how you can use it but also to give you an Overview of the different things that are possible and where to find out other information.

As ever BECTA has a great resource giving you a full heads up about Video conferencing how to use it; when to use it; how to develop links with organisations and it even supplies you with a list of which organisations and businesses offers video conferencing and activities (this includes NASA, Science Museum in London, the National Coal Mine Museum and many more). There are also more case studies than you can shake a stick at which may give you a further insight!

Global Leap are set up to promote the use of Video conferencing in the classroom and are a not for profit organisation. They arrange many events that you can participate in which can take some of the headache out of using this technology with a regular newsletter that details upcoming events. Although there is a £250 a year subscription this is well worth it as it also gives you a point of contact and advice....also if you are not very technical they will talk to the IT technicians to make sure all is well from the computer point of view. Further Information about Global Leap

Video Conferencing - Part One

Video-conferencing offers more opportunities than you may think. Many Museums and Businesses offer specially tailored Video-conferencing events ranging from an actor being a World War I actor talking about his experiences and taking questions from the class to ongoing mentoring from a business while a class completes a project!

Video-conferencing might seem like an intimidating technology, requiring expensive equipment and special technical expertise from teachers. In fact, a wide range of video-conferencing products is now available, ranging from low-cost webcams for personal use to sophisticated professional video-conferencing suites costing several thousand pounds.

At the most basic level, you can set up a simple two-way video-conferencing system using just two PCs equipped with webcams. A webcam – web camera – is a small video camera that can be connected to any computer equipped with a USB connection. In fact, some computers, such as Apple’s iMacs and MacBooks, have built-in webcams.

Video-conferencing software
Most webcams include basic video-conferencing software that will allow you to create a simple two-way conference session. There are also several free programs, such as the popular MSN Messenger, that can be used for video-conferencing. Many pupils will already be familiar with this software, so very little training or technical knowledge is required.

This sort of set-up will be perfectly adequate for allowing individual pupils or teachers to talk to each other over the Internet, or for small groups of pupils who can gather around the computer in the classroom.

Additional features come with higher-quality equipment. Two useful options are the ability to set up a conferencing session between multiple users, or to transmit additional data, such as diagrams or presentations. The iChat software included with Apple computers is capable of creating a four-way video conference, which could be very useful for teacher meetings. If you don’t use Macs then you may need to invest in additional software, such as PVX from video-conferencing specialists, Polycom.

The PVX software costs £100 per copy, but it does allow you to display documents such as presentation slides in a separate window alongside the main video image. This could be useful in a classroom situation or for teacher meetings. The disadvantage of using this sort of software is that you’re still primarily limited to simple person-to-person communication. And, of course, as you try to include more people in the conferencing system you will need more PCs, more webcams and more copies of the conferencing software.

Where do I get the equipment?
You can get a cheaply from anywhere to get you going all you need is a webcam and a microphone. I recommend checking on www.pricerunner.co.uk
you can pick up a webcam for practically nothing.

Also if you really fancy doing a fully integrated web conference which will allow participants to show slides and a whole host of other things then take a look at http://www.webex.com/. With WebEx all the software is on the internet no downloading anything all you pay for is the call cost about 10 pence a minute.

I will post some case studies next week to give you some better ideas of how you could use video-conferencing in the classroom.

Survey Monkey to the rescue!

My year 12's due to poor preparation, lack of effort and some minor storm on Thursday had not completed the collection of some market research for their project. But not to panic there is always survey monkey to fall back on!!!

I first used survey monkey when I had a real job in industry working for a large blue chip company....gosh those were the days....I had money, a nice car, piece and quiet and time to think...what fun....well pretty boring actually....mind you last lesson on a Friday with my bottom Year 9 group sometimes makes be question my decision.....anyway I digress! This is a great tool it is easy to use, free (with limited functionality but still does the job) and quick to get lots of results. My Year 12's in a matter of hours received a few hundred responses by putting their link on a couple of forums on the Internet asking people to take part.

This is a great tool in any subject where you want the students to collect data, learn about different types of questions and analyse results without a great big headache. The students also learn how to use an excellent tool which may come in useful later in life.

I also use this tool within school to collect data for audits from staff for example we have recently used it to look at Enterprise across the curriculum, what is being done, staff attitudes and knowledge etc. Staff love it as they can just click press submit and it is gone. I love it because it analyses the data for you making a job that use to take weeks to complete done and dusted in a day or so. Fantarta!

An overview appears below. Alternatively have a look at Survey Monkey's Website or even try their example questionnaire to see what you or your students can produce in a few easy steps!

Survey Monkey Overview

Design Survey
Using just your web browser, create your survey with our intuitive survey editor. Select from over a dozen types of questions (single choice, multiple choice, rating scales, drop-down menus, and more...).

Collect Responses
Tired of shuffling papers or poring over email responses? Simply cut and paste a link to your survey that you can post or print anywhere. Collecting meaningful information has never been easier!

Analyze Results
View your results as they are collected in real-time. Watch live graphs and charts, and then dig down to get individual responses. If you're a statistics nut, you can even download the raw data into Excel.

So what is ICT then?!?!?!?

Apologies to anyone that this seems to be teaching to suck eggs but I thought I would start with the basics!

This is because when talking to the bulk of the teacher community most have quite a narrow definition of what ICT is. There is a common misconception that ICT is simply the computers that are in the computer rooms or if your posh the IT Suites. However, if we allow ourselves to keep this narrow definition we are restricting a whole load of possibilities that involves more than just powerpoint presentations or booking the computer rooms for coursework!

ICT in fact stands for Information and Communication Technology and while yes it does include the rather static computers ICT includes digital cameras, video cameras, mobile phones, video/dvd players, web cams, personal organisers, radio and even things like playstation portables or Ipods.

Click the film below to see a short video I put together that may give you a further insight and even some ideas! Enjoy....





If you just see a white box above please click on the link below to see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8GKKjkclhg

Hello World!

Hi everyone!

I have been meaning to put this blog together for sometime and all my colleagues have been saying I need to let everyone know about the cool stuff I do with ICT in the classroom! Now those were their words not mine!

Anyway over the course of my posts I will attempt to inspire and challenge the way you think about ICT in the classroom but mainly I hope to give you loads of ideas on how you can use ICT to make your lessons a little more fun, enjoyable and 21st century!

Now some of my ideas and suggestions may have some of you thinking "This guy is not in the real world, I can't do that!"

Others may think "Deeerrrr we've been doing that for ages.....that is so last year!"

But hopefully all of you at some point will think "Gosh that's a great idea, I think I may give that a go!"

As long as this blog lasts please leave comments letting me know if you have tried stuff and whether or not you are finding the posts interesting....this will hopefully let me know whether my time is being used efficiently or not and whether I should better spend my time putting more data into eportal for the SMT to peruse!

Enjoy