What's in a name?

When the first micro-computers arrived in schools in the late 1980s, I was Head of RE in a small Church of England Secondary School. A mysterious black box was delivered, a Research Machines 380Z, and, since no-one seemed the slightest bit interested, I volunteered to take it home and discover what it was.

To cut a long story short, I did discover what it was and what it did, and I got the job of teaching Computing to a small group of enthusiasts.

Since then, the subject has been known as Computer Science, Computer Studies, IT and ICT. And now we are back to Computing again. And since I am no longer teaching, I'm out of touch with what the content of this "new" subject is to be. I'm not completely in the dark. I'm grateful to a number of teachers whose Tweets I follow for giving me a good deal of information. But it's not a subject I've taught for a long time, and the science has moved on a great deal since then.

So I need to be clear what it is that I am blogging about. I need a name for it. And I think the name is still ICT. I'm grateful to Peter Twining for an article he posted recently which defines very clearly the meaning of "ICT" as it now stands.

ICT: the cross curricular use of digital technologies, which can be subdivided into
Embedded Technology (ET): the use of digital technology where it has changed the nature of a subject (other than Computing) and is thus now an integral part of that subject. For example, in PE where it allows you to analyse performance, or history where it allows you to analyse vast data sets (and in so doing extends the sorts of questions you can ask), or in the natural sciences where it allows you to measure and record much more accurately (again changing the sorts of questions you can ask and answer).
TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning): the use of digital technology to extend (and enhance) our repertoire of teaching strategies/methods (i.e. Pedagogy)
Digital technology: the equipment (hardware and software) and infrastructure that is needed in order to engage with Computing and ICT.

Yes, this is ICT as I know it, and it is ICT as defined above about which Grumpy Old Teacher writes. I hope you find this ICT blog a useful resource. 

Boolean logic...

...is not the most exciting thing that kids can do in class, but it seems to be good sense that they understand how to use a search engine efficiently, so Boolean operators need to be understood, too.

A useful tool to help teach this otherwise dull matter is Boolify.

Using this, and learning how the Boolean expressions work, involves simply picking up boxes, each of which represents an item in a search term, and dropping them into a sequence in a window.

The only other input required is the actual search words and, where appropriate, the URL of the websites in which the search is to be conducted. The syntax of the search term thus formed - that is, the words and symbols one would have to use to perform this search in a normal search engine - are displayed below the workspace window.

The results of the search are shown below that.

This is an easy application to use, but there is a demo video available on You Tube, should that be needed.

There is also a help file, the language of which suits it best to teachers, and a suggested lesson plan. I used Boolify in my final year of teaching, with a Y7 class. It was a really useful classroom aid, and well received by the students. 

Posters for the classroom

I have a collection of 48 posters which I created for use around the academy wherever and whenever ICT was involved in lessons, and they proved to be very popular. They're not all to be pinned up on the wall and left there. Some of them are for specific occasions, such as when a teacher wants students to work alone, and quietly. Some are intended for a teacher audience. They are all available from the window below. Click to view.

If you would like to make a donation for them (into the GoT retirement fund!), then please use the button top right of this page, and pay via PayPal, or by Credit or Debit card (on the PayPal login page). I suggest 50p (80 cents USA) per poster, but please don't let the cost stop you from downloading and using however many you want.



I hope you find them useful.

Organisation and collaboration tool for the classroom

Stixy is a fabulous tool which can be used by individuals - teachers and students alike - to help them remember, plan or organize in all sorts of situations. This is how the creators describe it.

Stixy helps users organize their world on flexible, shareable Web-based bulletin boards called Stixyboards. Unlike most personal productivity or project management software, Stixy doesn’t dictate how users should organize their information. Users can create tasks, appointments, files, photos, notes, and bookmarks on their Stixyboards, organized in whatever way makes sense to them. Then they can share Stixyboards with friends, family, and colleagues.

The Stixyboard is driven by a set of widgets, which are picked up and dragged onto the board as required (A user can create any number of boards).

The demo board I've created uses each of these widgets once.

Looking at them in turn from left to right, we start with the Note. Dropping a Note widget on the board brings up this panel to the right of the board, with which the Note can be configured.

A similar panel appears for each of the widgets. The Photo...

...the Document...

...and the ToDo.

What I like particularly here is that it will email reminders to all those who share the Stixyboard, at a time decided by the owner, the originator.

Collaboration is simple. The owner of the board simply enters a list of email addresses of those he wants to invite to share it.

In standard manner, they receive an email with a link to the board, and can then add their own content, and edit what's already there, unless the widget is locked. Documents and photos can be downloaded even when the particular widget is locked.

The board can also be set up to allow uninvited guests to use it, either simply as viewers, or as editors.

A nice touch is the facility to recover widgets which have been removed from the board - useful if a user deletes something on the board inadvertently.

I see a number of uses for Stixy in the classroom or at home. Students and teachers can use them to collect together resources for a piece of work. A teacher can set up a board for a classroom or homework project, with resources, questions, instructions and so on. Groups of students might collaborate on planning and producing a piece of work. Teachers could do the same. I love it, and I think kids would love it, too!

Interesting (Track Class)

While I was trying out TrackClass, about which I blogged the other day, I blindly assumed it had been created for teachers. Looking now more carefully at the documentation, I realise that it was, in fact, created for use by students. Nonetheless, I do not retract my claim that this is an excellent organisation tool for teachers (as well), but I would love to see tools like this becoming the norm for students in our schools.

Digging into my Diigo account, I've found details of numerous other organisational tools which would benefit both teachers and their students, and I shall be examining them all over the coming days.