Grumpy Old Teacher

I think the time has come...

2010-10-24T12:30:00.000Z

...to draw a line under this blog. When I started it, I promised myself that I would not let it fizzle out ever, and that should I ever find that I had not posted for over two weeks, then that would be the indication that I should stop. And that has happened - twice!

I have to acknowledge that changes in professional and personal circumstances are now making it hard for me to find time to write worthwhile posts. I've even had my eye off Twitter for months now, so I'm no longer being fed with the regular diet of ideas and innovation which used to inspire me.

I started the blog as a grumpy, not-really-that-old teacher who was bitterly resenting the imposition of the massively flawed end of Key Stage 3 ICT Test by the Powers That Be, and determined to see them withdrawn. They were, and I heard the nationwide sigh of relief from thousands of ICT teachers. The blog then became more optimistic. I changed the subtitle from something like "Exposing the deplorable state of ICT in British education" to "Finding the way forward in secondary school ICT", and shared those "things ICT" which I found fascinating, amazing, challenging and, above all, useful in classrooms.

Over the past four years, I have been enormously excited by the new opportunities which ICT has offered to our teachers and learners - and I still am excited, no less than ever before. My regular readers come from over a dozen different countries, Vietnam being probably the one which surprised me the most. My free inspirational and instructional posters have been downloaded over 4,000 times. Slideshows for talks I have given at several conferences have been downloaded hundreds of times. And this blog has been responsible for me speaking at a good number of those conferences. I have enjoyed it, and I have been led to believe that many others have, too.

I am sad to stop now, but I feel it is inevitable. Thank you to all of you who have read "Grumpy Old Teacher" for however long, especially to those of you who have given something back, and posted your own comments. I wish you all the best in your endeavours. Yet again, ICT is moving into a new phase in schools, with all sorts of possibilities in the melting pot again. Teachers of ICT have never had an easy job, and that's not about to change! Keep pushing the boundaries, and never cease to be innovative!

Best wishes to all readers.

Roger Distill, Grumpy Old Teacher.

Why is ICT rated as a turn off?

2010-10-10T10:52:00.004Z

I've not blogged for a month now. New Academy resposibilities and changed home circumstances have forced me to use my time rather differently. It's not that I have stopped learning things that are worth passing on, and it's not that I've lost the passion - far from it. But I am reading less, too, and am beginning to feel starved of that very rich diet of blogs and tweets which have been feeding me and this blog for years now.

However, I had to share with you this article from Tony Attwood of Hamilton House Mailings Ltd. I quote it here in its entirety, and attribute it entirely to him.

"Some thirty or forty years ago a survey was undertaken among school students which showed that music was the most disliked lesson in secondary school. In more recent times the highly dubious honour of coming bottom of the “liked subject” list went to PSHE, and now it seems ICT is rated as a turn off. Indeed, as you may have seen, this summer the Royal Society expressed the view that the situation would lead to an unskilled workforce and threaten the UK's economy. It also reported that the number of pupils in England doing ICT GCSE had fallen 33% over three years along with a 33% fall between 2003 and 2009 in ICT A-level candidates.

The Royal Society is now undertaking a new study: Computing in schools and its importance and implications for the economic and scientific well-being of the UK. Researchers will look at curricula for ICT and computer science in schools, current exams and assessment processes, training for teachers, as well as the facilities and resources available in schools and colleges.

Chair of the study, Professor Steve Furber, said: "The UK has a proud history of leading the way in the field of computer science and associated disciplines, from the development of the world's first stored-program computers to more recent innovations such as the invention of the world-wide web.

"However, from this bright start, we are now watching the enthusiasm of the next generation waste away through poorly conceived courses and syllabuses.
If we cannot address the problem of how to educate our young people in inspirational and appropriate ways, we risk a future workforce that is totally unskilled and unsuited to tomorrow's job market."

But I wonder if I might have an insight into what the cause of the problem might be. All three subjects that I recall as spending a time at the bottom of the league table had one thing in common. They all related to a world that young people experience and claim as their own outside of school.

By which I mean that for most students, history is just something that they do in school – they don’t really get engaged in history beyond school organised activities. Same is true for science, maths, and even English, where much of their reading relates to work in the class. (Of course there are exceptions, but I think this is a general rule).

But with music, the issue always was that school students had their own music and the music in school had nothing to do with that. This changed once they could start creating music on Apple computers – music that related to the music they loved.

With PSHE there is always the problem of culture and peer pressure, where the PSHE teacher is working within the comparatively dry non-social atmosphere of the classroom, dealing with issues that are considered and dealt with on the street, in clubs, in the bedroom.

And so it is with ICT. The pupils and students we teach have their own ICT world which might include free access to the internet, Facebook, blogs, etc etc. If the world of school ICT is divorced from this “real” world, then there is always the danger of a decline in interest.

I know it is a contentious view, and of course there are many schools where such issues are readily overcome. I just wonder if any of this has crossed the mind of the Royal Society."

I cannot avoid mentioning that I blogged about this years ago. Is there ever to be a change?

Really cool colour search tool!

2010-09-09T16:26:00.000Z

I really don't know how generally useful this is likely to be, but I just feel that it's one of those little web-based tools that everybody ought to know about - just in case they might need it one day! Simply, it finds photos on Flickr whose dominant colours are those which you select from a pallette at the side of the page. Up to ten colours can be set. Brilliant!

Find it at http://labs.ideeinc.com/multicolr/

Update on Asus netbook project

2010-09-08T17:38:00.001Z

Well, it's been a very long time since I posted here! Summer holidays took up all of my time throughout late July and August - shame! And returning to Academy has meant that I am suddenly far busier than I expected to be, so blogging time has been short. However...

Some weeks ago, I discovered to my horror that Asus no longer produce the netbook which I have been using as the focus of my project to put class sets of computers into every teaching room in the Academy. They only sell netbooks with hard discs now, and this makes them far less suitable for the kind of use I am proposing for the Academy. The battery life of a hard disc machine is considerably reduced, and they are far less resistant to damage from knocks, too.

I have looked for similar netbooks being made by other companies, and found none. It seems that the whole discless concept is old fashioned now. I wrote to Asus, asking if they could supply the machines we want. I asked why they had not considered their eminent suitability for classroom use. There was no reply. I wrote again, to the same effect. Then an answer arrived from the UK Head of Sales ...they can build bespoke units for us! I am now going into details with him, and plan to have the first two classroom sets in use next half term.

A plea to my readers... Is it possible that you might want to try using the netbooks in the manner I have described in several posts on this blog? Can you catch the vision? If so, then please go to Asus and describe your need, because I am trying to pursuade them to put them back into production and to target the education market.

This could - this should! - catch on!

My letter to Asus

2010-07-26T10:58:00.001Z

I have now sent my letter to Asus via the feedback form on the support page of their website. If you endorse my vision, and believe that these netbooks could be the very valuable tool I believe they could be, then please visit their support page and make your feelings known. And please register your support in the comments below. If Asus cannot step up to this, then I shall find another company whose ear I shall bend, but I will not let this go!

Sirs, I am Head of Learning, ICT & Business, at an Academy in the UK. I am currently involved in planning for ICT provision in our new £26 million Academy building, due to be fully opened in 2012, and I have a vision for the Academy – one which I have shared with all of the Leadership Team and my teaching colleagues, and with many others in various conferences at which I have spoken.

The vision is for all teaching rooms to have a class set of netbook PCs, to be used by students wirelessly to access the Web and all of the cloud applications available there. These netbooks would be students’ regular learning tools, to be taken off the shelves as and when they need them, rather than having to visit a suite of desktop PCs at a designated time. And the machine at the centre of this vision is the Asus Eee PC 901. Perfect for web access, light, cheap, and with a long battery life, we would be looking to buy hundreds of these.

Unfortunately, however, I find that this model is no longer produced, and that all of its successors have hard discs, which render the machines more expensive and less durable, and which give the batteries less charge life. Without these ingredients – small size, light weight, durability, long battery life, low price - computers are totally unable to deliver what we require in the Academy.

Furthermore, the netbook makes a perfect client for virtualisation on a thin client network, using Xen technology. The fact that it has little memory and storage space is immaterial. Virtualisation will enable users to access all of the software on the network which has previously only been available to desktop PC users. What a phenomenal tool this is!

As well as promoting this vision at conferences, I am also blogging about it on http://ictgrump.blogspot.com , and the idea has attracted a great deal of support. I wonder if Asus have, in fact, missed a major marketing focus here.

Some weeks ago, Morgan Computers were selling the end of stock of their Eee PC 901s, and were advertising them as being perfect for very simple applications – web browsing, email and looking at photos. I wrote to them and pointed them to my blog, where I outline dozens of web-based applications which turn the netbook into a very powerful tool. Morgan created a link to my blog on their web page, and hundreds of potential buyers visited the blog to see what I had to say about the Eee PC.

My bottom line, sirs, is that I hope that I might be able to purchase from you the many Eee PC 901s which we will need at the academy, and, further, that you will consider bringing them back into production for promotion in the educational world, for use in the manner I have described. I know little of business, but it seems you have a massive business opportunity here.

I look forward to hearing from you on this.

Regards,

Good news for my mini-netbook project

2010-07-24T12:43:00.005Z

I spent last Monday meeting with a group of various staff from the Academy, discussing and planning a range of ICT issues for the Academy, with particular reference to the new £26 million building which is due to be fully opened in September 2012. I shared with them my vision - now also the vision of the Heads of Learning and most of the teaching staff - to bring mini-netbooks into all classrooms in the manner I have described in several earlier posts. They were sold on the idea, so much so that it was agreed to run a trial of seventy netbooks in daily classroom use in the second half of the autumn term. I now have Heads of Learning queuing up to be part of that trial!

But what came as totally new to me, and which excites me enormously, was the suggestion of the ICT Manager that we also trial a thin-client system over the whole term, which will enable us not only to bring back into use older PCs no longer fit for current use, but also to virtualise the netbooks. What this will mean is that these little PCs will be able to act as clients to the Xen system we will be using, and to run all of the software available on the network, regardless of the processing requirements.

Suddenly it becomes obvious to me that these little machines could become a very big seller to schools, if they all catch on to this idea. Problem is, it seems that these solid-state storage netbooks are going out of style, and machines with hard-discs are replacing them, at higher cost, and with serious battery drain overheads, and it was the duration of the battery charge which was one of the major features which suited netbooks to regular classroom use. I am in the process of trying to get into a dialogue with Asus to see if they might reconsider this.

Winding down

2010-07-21T17:59:00.000Z

With just two days left of the summer term, my colleagues and I look back at the term and are astounded at how busy it has been. How I look forward to spending weeks on the Leeds and Liverpool canal, and in a farm cottage in the middle of nowhere in the Yorkshire Dales!

When I return to school, my job role will have changed considerably. My teaching timetable will be considerably less, unfortunately, as I move into a managerial role with broader responsibilities, and a heavy focus on readying the teaching staff for the enormous change they will experience when they move into the new Academy building in 2012. The ICT facilities we will have then, throughout the academy, will be second to none, and teachers will need training and various other support to make sure that this technology is used to its fullest extent in raising the standard of teaching and learning. The biggest problem I have is trying to help colleagues to define their ICT requirements, knowing that the technology which will be available in eighteen months to two years will be very different from what we know now.

We start next year with an acting Principal, our current one having decided to leave in order to undertake voluntary work for a charitable organisation in Mombasa. As a self-confessed ICT novice, she needed my help, setting up Picasa on her netbook computer, to handle the many photos she expects to take, and to create a blog to record details of her work. It was gratifying to witness her delight when it all came together, and she posted her first couple of entries. I wish now I'd run those evening classes I always wanted to run, for adult newcomers to the digital age!

Summer holidays...

2010-07-13T18:43:00.001Z

...are close upon us, and they can't come a day too soon! It's not that I don't love teaching - I really do. It's simply that it's been an incredibly busy year, and this last term has seemed to be the busiest by far. But we finish on a high. Three members of my team have been given new roles of responsibility within ICT & Business, the NQT we appointed for last January is progressing really well, and we appointed additionally a further NQT and a Lead Practitioner. What a strong team this is! I am looking forward enormously to next school year, working with this lot.

Following my workshops at the E2BN Conference a few weeks ago, I have now been invited by Capita Conferences to speak at their ICT in Schools Conference on 12th October in central London. My talk is to be Embracing Cloud Technologies for Learning, and addresses

• Supplying Key Stage 3 curriculum needs for students via web-based applications
• Realising efficiency savings
• Vision for future roll-out of ‘in the cloud’ learning

I'm very much looking forward to the event.

I close the year planning ICT provision for the new Academy Building, due to be opened fully in 2012. Mercifully, we are not one of the academies whose building projects have been stopped by the government in one of their money-saving drives, and my fellow Heads of Learning and I can confidently plan for the kind of ICT provision throughout the establishment which will be the envy of most. It will not be a surprise to regular readers to learn that the netbook/cloud computing model is one which I am exploring in some depth with my colleagues. It has certainly caught the imagination of a large number of staff who have attended workshops of mine. I was delighted to hear a couple of delegates at the E2BN Conference tell that they use class sets of the mini netbooks like mine, very successfully, and without loss or damage. It's all very promising.

The problem is, what technologies will be available in eighteen or so months' time when we come to order the hardware? What will have superceded my netbook?

E2BN Workshop

2010-06-30T18:31:00.001Z

Wow! What an excellent conference! So much inspiration from our main speakers, so much good practice shared at the workshops, the exhibitors, the Indian dinner last night, the mind-reader (very spooky!), the very good company, the networking - such a brilliant combination. And then, to close, Sir Bob! OK, he didn't speak to the title we were given, but what a speaker, what a thinker, and what passion about things that matter! I could seriously listen to all of that again. I haven't looked at the Conference website recently, but I wonder if there are any podcasts there this year. I have been asking for the keynotes at least to be broadcast this way for some years, but it has not happened yet.

To those of you who attended my workshops, thanks for being such brilliant audiences. It's always a delight when I walk away from such an occasion have learned from those who came to learn from me. Thank you for that, and for the really useful backchannelling. Issues were raised which I will write about here on this blog over the next few weeks, I think.

As promised, the presentation and a list of hyperlinked resources are included in the drop box linked here. Please help yourselves, and leave comments if there are things you didn't say in the backchannel, but would like to say now.

See you all next year?

E2BN Conference time...

2010-06-27T18:52:00.001Z

...and, as always, I'm really looking forward to it. Entitled "This Generation's Learning", with a host of excellent keynote speakers, Russell Prue as MC, and a large bunch of interesting-sounding workshops - including mine, "Cloud Computing in the Classroom", it is going to be a brilliant way to spend two days.

Stephen Heppell is the opening keynote speaker - "What Inspires This Generation's Learning?" Professor Heppell is one of my ICT gurus, and I just love hearing what he has to say. The final, guest speaker is Sir Bob Geldof - "Communicating with this Generation". That should be well worth hearing, too.

As last year, I look forward to meeting some of you at the conference. Please come and introduce yourselves!

Wonderful painting tools - free!

2010-06-23T16:04:00.002Z

I cannot resist trying out software for painting and drawing - especially if it's free. I am not a painter, but am fascinated with the dozens of applications I have used over the years which help inadequate painters and drawers like myself to produce something which is only half bad, and better than I could do with traditional brushes and pens. So, I am particularly impressed by these two applications.

Harmony is a web-based program, very simple, but hugely intriguing. It only has eleven tools, but the results which can be achieved can be amazing. Mine, below, took only a few minutes.

The other, a free download installed on your computer, is MyPaint. This is just a tad more traditional than Harmony, but knocks the like of MSPaint into insignificance.

Its beauty is the amazing selection of brushes it has - it must run to hundreds, with a simple facility to modify existing brushes, or to create your own.

A quick dabble by a non-artist...

Kids love these, and they both have great potential in schools. AND they can use them at home at no cost - that has to be a bonus.

No computers for those under nine years old?

2010-06-20T10:26:00.003Z

I am grateful to Clive for sending me this piece of news from the British Computer Society, now Chartered Institute for IT

Under-9s 'too young for computers', expert says
14/06/2010
Computers should be banned in nurseries and primary schools in order to prevent modern technology from hindering the mental development of young children, it has been claimed.

While schools across the UK continue to invest in computer systems, a leading psychologist has warned that screen-based technology can serve to 'dull the brains' of young children.

Dr Aric Sigman, who is a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, has called for computers to be banned in Britain's schools until children reach the age of nine, so as to enable their brains to develop in the 'real world' before being exposed to the virtual world.

'The young brain needs to be primed through real world 3D experiences that place plenty of cognitive demands on it,' he explained.

'While new technology may serve as a powerful tool, it must be introduced and used judiciously at much later ages - ideally at least age nine.'

I've started to look into it, and see who's speaking out against it with any authority. But it is a tiny bit worrying if it's a valid concern. I have often thought that the whole of ICT is probably contributing to a new phase in human evolution. The way we relate to the world now, through various aspects of Web 2.0, and now in new ways again with the emergence of Web 3.0, is bound to affect the ways we think, which in turn will literally change the connections in our brain. We are becoming far more multi-tasking than ever before, and multi-conversational. My adventures in Second Life have made me very aware that virtual relationships bring about new social rules, and new forces in our emotional arena which we have never before experienced. I can easily believe that, as more and more of the world's population get involved in these technologies, the more we will change as a race.

Whether or not those under the age of nine are more "at risk", and whether this is actually a risk of danger, I have yet to find out. But it's going to be difficult for education authorities around the globe to decide to withdraw ICT from primary schools. Slow as it has been to develop im most countries, it is going to be found to be very deeply entrenched now, and hard to turn away from.

Testing the Zoho Show "Public Gadget"

2010-06-16T21:35:00.004Z

Simply a test, using a PowerPoint presentation I've used for staff training, imported into Zoho Show and then displayed below by means of a "gadget" (a widget by another name!)

(Aagh! Some of the slides are in the wrong order! How??) Sorted - thanks, Zoho, for your prompt assistance!

On Internet filtering in schools...

2010-06-13T16:31:00.000Z

...I could do nothing better than to refer you to this blog post by SimFin. Time for schools to sit upand take this issue seriously and intelligently.

Edu 2.0

2010-06-12T20:00:00.003Z

Does anyone out there use Edu 2.0, the free VLE? It seems just too good to be true to me. An impressive host of features, and all provided and hosted ad-free at no cost? The VLE for the Academy has not yet been agreed, and there seems to be a lot of politics and LA self-importance getting in the way of progress. I am inclined to go the Moodle route, and we have a potential Moodle manager already on staff, but we would need to start with a finished product and then tailor it to meet our particular needs, and I was looking for one such Moodle when I stumbled upon Edu 2.0. It must be worth taking a look at at least, I suppose, but I would be grateful to hear from someone who is already using it.

It's just three weeks away now from the wonderful E2BN Annual Conference, and I am busy putting the finishing touches to my workshop, to be delivered on both days, on Cloud Computing in the Classroom. It will, of course, feature my netbook PC and a load of applications which I have decribed on this blog, and I'm looking forward to it immensely.

This time last year (ish) I was invited to speak at a conference in Iceland, but regrettably had to decline because I did not think it appropriate to miss days away from work just a few weeks into our Academy status. What self-sacrifice! I am so hoping they might ask again this year - I have the Principal's full support in taking the time off for it this year! My fingers are crossed!

Filtering sorted at last!

2010-06-07T16:40:00.002Z

Last half term ended on a real high for me. Having advertised very late for two additional members of my ICT team (in order to deliver significantly increased hours of teaching across the key stages next year), we appointed two excellent teachers on the last day of the half term. One is a very strong NQT, and the other an outstanding Lead Practitioner. I couldn't believe my luck! I shall have such a superb team next year. Such a far cry from the situation I had a few years back when I lead a team of thirteen, only one other of whom was qualified in the subject!

The second reason for my elation was the arrival in the Academy of a device which enables my ICT Manager to control our own Internet filtering. Suddenly, all of the problems I have been having with the external filtering of our feed are gone. Access to websites can be granted or denied by group (staff/students, KS3/KS4/KS5 etc.) or by individual. Websites are categorized for filtering purposes, but we decide which sites should belong in which category, and how each category is to be dealt with. As far as I am concerned, this is total freedom to use whichever website I choose, and the possibilities now opened up to the curriculum are enormous!

To take advantage of this, I used today TodaysMeet, which I reviewed last month. I had a Y7 class of 28 sitting in total silence, working together in the chat room, deciding what technologies we ought to be using in the Academy, for what purpose, and for what reason. It was brilliant. Apart from the four lads who obviously didn't believe me when I explained the need for them to act fairly maturely, and to resist making silly commentsin the chat room, the whole class rose to the task of working as if they were actually geographically situated apart from each other - hence the silence. The extraction of the miscreants from the lesson, to stand and watch while the rest of the class enjoyed their work, acted as a powerful motivator to any others who might have been tempted to do the wrong thing.

Never before had any of these students chatted online in such a large group, and there was a lot of learning to do - keeping a very careful eye on the arrival of each other's contributions in the room, always referring their chat to an indivdual by name, or referring to a previous comment by the name of the author. After about 10 minutes, the chat was being very successful and constructive, and I had a lot of good ideas to read through. I look forward to trying the same thing with the rest of the year group; after that, to try backchannelling in a lesson.

Wallwisher

2010-05-24T20:21:00.002Z

This morning I experimented with Wallwisher, and was encouraged by the results. Wallwisher allows the user to create a "wall" upon which they and others post comments. Images, audio or video can be attached using URL links. Simple as that! Is it useful in class? Yes, I think it is!

I used one I show here just to get feedback from a Year 7 class. For strange reasons, they've not had much ICT this past year, so I wanted to find out if that had affected their impression of the subject. They added their thoughts to the wall, and the wall became a discussion starter about what they had achieved, what they had enjoyed (and not), and what they thought they ought to be doing next year (when we will endeavour to give them back the time they lost this year). And I can think of lots of times where this kind of brainstorming platform will be useful in my lessons, and I suspect that the same would be true of teachers of other subjects.

Wallwisher - what do you think?

Backchannelling in class...

2010-05-20T21:24:00.002Z

...or simply chatting? What's the verdict? Have any readers tried this in class? In what context? With what degree of success?

I ask because I've just discovered TodaysMeet. And I'd use it if I could, and try it in class as I always do with the new things I find. But I can't use TodaysMeet, because the Academy's ISP has blocked access to it, because it is a chatroom, and chatrooms, as we all know, are bad!

So I've just wasted precious hours communicating with our ISP (Virgin Media), and with the Local Authority employee who is supposed to represent educators to the ISP, trying to get them to understand that it is not dangerous to allow a class of 25 Year 7 students share an exclusive chatroom with their teacher in order to experiment with and trial the whole concept of backchannelling. I lost the argument. Conservative intransigence reigns supreme in the realms of the LA.

However, speaking with the network manager this week, it seems that we may soon see and end to such restrictive filtering, when we get our own filtering system which puts us entirely in charge of who can see what within the Academy. And then I shall use TodaysMeet.

TodaysMeet is simplicity itself. The instigator visits the website and creates the chatroom - gives it a name (which then forms part of its URL), and decides how long it shall remain live. He then contacts all who are to be members, and shares the URL with them. A Twitter hashtag can be added, too.

All visit the chatroom at the agreed time, and...

...well, they chat! Or...

...they use the service for backchannelling, for holding their own background conversations about the lesson, the video, the whatever's going on in class at the time. The whole conversation can be transcribed and used afterwards by the teacher to identify questions that need to be answered, issues which need clarifying, students who need extra support and so on.

A fabulous idea, and an excellent piece of software to realise it. Roll on the Academy filtering system!

E-safety in schools - Ofsted's judgment criteria

2010-05-11T13:23:00.008Z

Having recently undergone an Ofsted inspection of our e-safety situation in the Academy, I thought it might be useful to British readers (and, hopefully, at least interesting to the rest of you) to see the Ofsted description of a school deemed to be "outstanding" in this respect. The following is copied direct from an Ofsted report.

Secondary School – Outstanding

The overall effectiveness of e-safety was judged to be outstanding.

Outcomes for students are outstanding.

• The small number of incidents that have been experienced have been exceptionally well managed by senior leaders and external agencies in line with the acceptable user policy and established safeguarding and protection practice

• Students of all ages and backgrounds are effectively taught to safely handle and mange risk in a rich technology environment. The school nurtures responsible behaviour and attitudes and builds resilience by teaching students what constitutes an unsafe situation and the consequences of ignoring good advice. Students are also given the confidence and skills to resist peer pressure.

The quality of provision is outstanding

• The school provides an exemplary e-safety curriculum on the school website which enables staff to deliver high quality personal guidance lessons and assemblies.

• In addition, all students from Year 7 to Year 11 have timetabled information and communication technology lessons which are permeated by e-safety. As students move through the school essential skills and understanding are strengthened. This prepares them really well for the next stage of education, training or employment.

• The provision for all students is effectively adapted to meet the needs of age and ability and progressively develops their knowledge and understanding of e-safety as they mature into adults.

• The school makes certain that programmes are flexible so that they can be personalised to take account of individual circumstances, for example students arriving at short notice or those at an early stage of learning English.

• Opportunities are provided before, during and after the school day for those with limited access to new technologies or little experience of more advanced technology.

• Opportunities are also provided to inspire and interest the very able, gifted or talented to use their skills in positive and productive ways.

The leadership and management of e-safety are outstanding.

• The school has clear vision for the safe use of new technology and this is reflected in the unambiguous acceptable user policies for both students and staff.

• Senior leaders have established a talented e-safety team comprising eSafety manager, pastoral manager and systems manager. They are reflective, self-critical and pro-active.

• You have created a climate in which all staff have a strong sense of ownership of e-safety practice. This approach is bolstered by explicit and effectively disseminated e-safety action plans.

• Students are very aware of what is expected of them when following user policy good practice. As a result, they are responsible safe users.

• The governing body have ratified all policies and have an identified governor for Child Protection which also includes e-safety responsibilities.

• Parents are active partners in enabling students to stay safe.

The quality of training is outstanding.

• The e-safety team has established a pattern of high quality training, tailored to needs, for all staff. Robust evaluation of all training and practice ensures that a strong impact is made on the outcomes for students.

• The e-safety team are determined to ensure that training remains relevant and keeps pace with technological advances to ensure that students are effectively protected.

• The expertise and experience of external agencies are successfully used to enhance the quality of staff training.

It just keeps getting better!

2010-05-02T11:44:00.001Z

When I first got my Asus EEE PC netbook, I was considering various cloud solutions to file storage for a computer which has no hard disc and minimal virtual hard disc space. Yesterday, I found the best solution by far.

Every time I log in to my GoogleMail account, I am reminded "You are currently using 266MB (3%) of your 7450MB.", or thereabouts. Now that is a lot of free storage still available to me. I have read debates about whether this storage includes the Google Docs space or not, and I have not yet found anyone who has a clear answer to that question. However, that notwithstanding, that space is available to me, and viksoe.dk's GMail Drive shell extension allows me quick and easy access to that space from all of my computers - my netbook and desktop PCs at home, and my PC at the Academy.

Quite simply, a small piece of software is downloaded and installed on the computer. This creates a new, virtual drive.

Files can now be saved or dragged into this drive, and they are uploaded to the Google servers in the cloud. Additionally, they are automatically emailed to my Gmail inbox so that I can forward them to others if so required, or pick them up from any computer on which I do not have the GMail Drive. In Firefox, I have created a filter in my inbox so that any such incoming emails are saved straight into a separate archive folder.

I shall continue using drop.io as a drop-box for sharing files with others, but this has to be the best personal file storage I can have for my netbook. Very simple, very useful.

A netbook must for primary schools...

2010-05-01T10:07:00.004Z

...and perhaps those with special needs in secondary schools, is Just2Easy .

I wrote about J2e some time ago, but returned to it recently to find it had been further developed. It still has the tagline Create : Share : Learn which indicates straight away its eminent suitability to education. It is, still, a brilliant suite of web-based software for word-processing, DTP and drawing, and creating web pages and web forms. Additionally, however, it now offers the facility to read text with a digital voice, and J2e Symbols, a function which pops up an image onto the screen which illustrates the word over which the mouse pointer is hovering.

"J2eSymbols is a fantastic educational resource. It can be set to work as you type or during the spell check function to help with the "which witch is which" problem. It can also be combined with our word lists."

It's simply brilliant for kids whose spelling is weak.

An icon on the netbook's bookmarks toolbar, linking to J2e, makes the device a very useful tool for primary kids or those with literacy problems. Of course, file storage is in the cloud, and the sharing of work with others on the web is an enormous bonus. For schools there is an annual cost, but I would not have thought that would be prohibitive - £75 per hundred students on role. I am sure they would get their money's worth.

More on the netbook

2010-04-28T21:26:00.001Z

I bought my Asus EEE PC from Morgan Computers. Yesterday, I received an email from them, promoting "Five superb laptops from as little as £124.99", of which the Asus was one. They called it, "A perfect budget web browser", and, on their website, said of it, "Share photos of your travels without waiting till you get home with the netbook ASUS Eee PC notebook. Shop the World Wide Web without attaching any lines or wires"

I felt this was rather insulting of a superb little device, so I wrote to them to say so...

"Sirs, you really badly undersell this device. Rather than demeaning it with the suggestion that it is good for sharing photos and online shopping, how about suggesting the massive raft of office applications and the like which are available on the web free of charge? THAT makes it a very powerful, yet light and portable tool for most people!

Read my blog, in which I describe my progress in making one of these a fantastic everyday tool for all students in an academy."

I was amused when, within a couple of hours, they emailed me back saying that they had linked their advert to this blog!

My readership shot up massively for the past two days! (No mention of commission from Morgan, however!)

My netbook project - three weeks in

2010-04-24T09:30:00.002Z

I really cannot find any problems, using my EEE Netbook PC in the way I described in my first post about it. I am massively impressed by the device, and really excited as I see new possibilities arise, and when I share my ideas with colleagues and witness their excitement, too. I use the netbook a great deal, but not exclusively. I have taken it into the Academy and used it on the wireless and ethernet networks there, with no problems. I use it often in the garden or summerhouse, around the house, sitting up in bed on a Saturday morning. It supplies all of my needs most of the time.

There are times of course, like right now, when I will still use my desktop PC, because it has a mass of software which the netbook does not. And I have to confess that I find the small, netbook keyboard to be more difficult to use if I am doing a lot of typing. But I suspect that my students will not find this nearly so much of a problem. Many of them have smaller hands than mine, and all are so much more used to using small keyboards - on mobile phones and other portable devices - than I am.

The thing to do now is to pursuade the Principal to let me buy a few of these netbooks for me to trial with the kids. Fingers crossed!

Boolify your searches!

2010-04-20T17:39:00.001Z

Any ICT teacher will tell you how difficult it can be to teach students (and fellow teachers) how to search efficiently on the Internet. The introduction of Boolean terms AND, OR, and NOT is difficult for those whose abstract thinking is not their strongest mental faculty. Enter Boolify!

Boolify uses the Google search engine to search the web. But it does so using a simple pictorial interface which makes the use of the Boolean operators clear, and the results of their application, immediate.

In this example, I am searching for gnomes, but not garden gnomes, nor anything to do with software such as the Gnome Desktop. The symbols for the seach options are dragged from the sidebar onto the workspace in the centre. The tools on the right are self-explanatory.

Boolify says of itself,

"Boolify makes it easier for students to understand their web search by illustrating the logic of their search, and by showing them how each change to their search instantly changes their results. The goal of Boolify is to help users better to understand and perform Internet searches. Boolify utilizes the Google search engine, and therefore it is designed to illustrate Google's search methodology, which varies in some ways from strict Boolean logic."

so one has to proceed with a little caution in using it in the teaching of Boolean logic, but I find it entirely usable nonetheless.

As soon as I enter my first term - "gnome", the Google engine returns underneath the workspace the results of its first search. Adding "(AND) NOT garden" refines the search and the new results appear below. The final "(AND) NOT software" further refines the search, and the results are again regenerated.

Whilst there would be no harm in using this as your regular search tool, Boolify is intended to be an instructional tool, and I fully intend using it with my next Year 7 cohort. I might even squeeze in a lesson with the current yeargroup. Boolify is an excellent tool, usefully supplemented with some video demonstrations, a textual explanation of Boolean logic, and some printable teaching aids.

A question of page width

2010-04-14T16:58:00.001Z

Most of you will be aware that I have recently started to use a different template for this blog. I thought it was an improvement, but one reader has suggested that the text line length is too long to be comfortable to read.

What do the rest of you think? Please comment below, especially if you think this line length is too great.

Giving students' work the personal touch

2010-04-14T10:40:00.001Z

Teaching ICT, I often spend time with my students discussing their choices of font. One of the hardest things is getting them to remember that they have a choice. Most seem happy to use the default Arial or Times New Roman, but then, their teachers - their role models - so often make that mistake too, so I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle here.

Then, of course, once I think I have got the message across that they have a choice, I need to help them make the right choices, so we talk about formal and informal, serif and sans serif, and so on. I want them to understand that their choice reflects to some extent their individuality. Students have complained to me that, even though their printed work may look very neat and tidy, it looks just like the work of several others in the class.

When I came across FontCapture, a chord was struck loud in my teacher brain. Here is an opportunity for my students to make their work look like theirs, distinct from that of others. The example I show here is created by a Year 7 boy. He finds handwriting laborious, and loves the ease of the keyboard. This font makes the hardcopy distinctly his, though. The letters are not perfectly formed, but they are consistent and legible. He gets the best of both worlds.

FontCapture works by providing a template pdf for users to print out and fill in.

Time needs to be taken here, and care with the formation, and particularly the positioning of the characters. The two pages of template cover 264 characters in all, but most kids would only need 96 of those. The completed templates are now scanned, and the resulting file uploaded to the website. FontCapture processes this, and supplies a font file (your choice of name) to download and add to the Fonts folder on your hard disc. A nice aid to students, possibly in particular those with handwriting difficulties.

My notebook project - Google Docs for schools

2010-04-11T19:22:00.000Z

My discovery of the Education Edition of Google Apps has rocketed my notebook idea to the heights! Here we have a suite of Google applications, free and ad-free for schools, customizable, and easily integrated into schools' current systems. This has to make cloud computing very attractive to any school, and PCs like my notebook very powerful little devices indeed.

A useful purchase...

2010-04-11T18:16:00.003Z

...this week was a robot arm, in kit form, supplied with software for direct control or programming (actually, teaching) via a PC USB port. It cost just £30 from Maplin, plus another £6 for the required four D cells - what a stupidly high proportion of the total cost the batteries are! UK delivery is free.

I am very impressed by it. It is just what I need to introduce the Control element of KS3 ICT, and is so cheap I may well buy another. It does come with a mental health warning, though! As I said, this is a kit, and took about an hour to assemble with the help of not entirely adequate instructions, so if you are not the DIY kind of person, then I recommend you find one who will do the job for you. There are lots of pieces!

It is very good for the price, but it is not perfect, so be careful to use this only to demonstrate control principles, rather than as a tool for students to learn and apply their control and programming skills. There are some excellent pieces of software for that job. The problem with the robot arm is that it does not use stepper motors, so movement is measured by its duration, rather than by usual factor, the number of steps made by the motors. This gives rise to slight inaccuracies when a program is being executed. However, a creative teacher could turn this to their advantage, and that of the class, by making it a discussion point. Out of that discussion would come the idea of determining the arm's movements with fixed units which do not rely on the state of the batteries!

I'm glad I saw this and bought it, and I look forward to using it with Y7 next term.

Lessons on leadership

2010-04-11T06:48:00.001Z

My thanks go to Richard Byrne and the Langwitches Blog who between them got me watching this short video. Very insightful, very profound, I think this should be seen by management teams in schools around the globe. There is a lot to be learned here - for one, the significant difference between management and leadership!

More on cloud file storage

2010-04-08T16:13:00.005Z

I've come across several other services which supply free online storage and which could be used by the users of my ideal netbook PC. My latest find is Arkiva, which gives a useful 2Gb, but 4Shared gives 10Gb, and ADrive offer a huge 50Gb. I have used box.net in the past, and now use drop.io.

But a new problem has occurred to me...

Certainly in my county, sites like Arkiva are blocked by the ISP under the direction of the Education Authority, categorised as "File Storage". That's correct! No-one is allowed access to such sites because (and I quote a source close to the Authority) "Kids can use it to bring unsuitable materials into schools from home." It beggars belief that thinking adults can raise this as an objection to online file storage. Have they not considered the regular of use of USB memsticks, MP3 players and mobile phones by students to bring digital files of all sorts into their schools? These are far easier to use than file storage sites - simple as they are! Such narrow-mindedness as this, as also blocks social networking sites and many others that encourage our kids to collaborate and share, will slow progress - is slowing progress - seriously.

Delicious or Google Bookmarks? And help requested...

2010-04-07T16:40:00.001Z

I have, to my shame, only just come across Google Bookmarks. I've used Delicious for bookmarking for years, but I am of a mind to move to its Google counterpart for the sake of keeping as many eggs as I can in one basket, since I already use loads of Google applications and tools.

There seems to be a number of problems with Google Bookmarks, however. As far as I can see, there is no tagging, and I have found tagging to be very useful. Secondly, accessing them seems to involve adding a whole new Google toolbar to the top of my browser, and that is very undesirable on my notebook with its 9.5" screen. The alternative to that is to add a Firefox plug-in such as GBookmarks, which adds just one button to the top menu bar, and I am testing this right now. Firefox will import bookmarks from Delicious with ease, and GBookmarks imports all of your Firefox bookmarks equally well.

Do any readers have any advice here, please?

While I'm asking for help, do any of you know how to remove application icons which have installed themselves bottom right of my Firefox status bar? All but two of mine are not needed there, since they are duplicated on my browser toolbar, alongside the URL box. Alternatively, how do I remove them from there?

(Toolbar icons on the left, status bar on the right)

Secondly, how do I get my banner picture at the top of my blog to fit neatly into the placeholder? I've spent ages tweaking the code, but just can't get it right!

Still on the subject of faxing...

2010-04-06T11:15:00.001Z

...it occured to me that, since I do occasionally send faxes, it might be a good idea for me to have the wherewithall to receive them. I'm not about to buy a fax machine, so I looked to the Internet to solve the problem, and quickly came up with Free Fax to Email.

I signed up, and received my free fax number. Any incoming faxes now go straight to my inbox. Job done!

Faxing for free

2010-04-06T07:41:00.000Z

I don't often need to use fax. Up until recently, my home PC has been in a room where I had the onboard fax modem connected to my landline, but this has now changed, and I did not want to be left without the ability to send a fax on those few occasions when it was necessary.

I considered the option of using Skype or some other VOIP system, but was surprised and disappointed not to be able to find one which suited. Then I looked for web-based solutions. There are many! Many of those serve only the USA and Canada, but just a few serve 30 to 40 countries, and the one I came down to is MyFax.

MyFax allows me to send up to 2 faxes per day, with attachments. The file must not exceed 10MB, nor 10 pages. Supported files types include Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, TIF, GIF, and JPEG, so pretty much all requirements covered there. Unlike lots of these services, MyFax does not put adverts on the fax you send.

I've added a button to my browser toolbar on my netbook, too, adding further functionality to that.

Do you have 20 minutes, in which to be inspired?

2010-04-05T09:29:00.002Z

Then watch this, and BE inspired!

The TED Talk here is by Professor Sugata Mitra, of Newcastle. His “Hole in the Wall” project described 10 years of his research which shows the capacity of kids - he focuses here on kids in the slums of India, but it could be kids anywhere - to teach themselves. Professor Mitra started with one computer, which he placed literally in a hole in a wall in an Indian slum. He left the computer and came back months later, to discover that the children had not only organised a system for sharing use of the computer, but had also taught themselves how to use the computer, and how to read the English user interface and English web sites. And they didn't want to stop there.

How do we get this attitude to learning into our schools?

JayCut community - a place for our creative students

2010-04-05T08:07:00.000Z

I am hoping that video making is an activity which is becoming more and more commonplace in our schools, for here is a medium for the communication of ideas of all sorts, which is rich in creative potential. I have blogged before about JumpCut, a website where users can upload, edit and share their videos, but this site is, alas, no more.

However, JayCut is now with us, and has recently announced the launch of their community, which offers very much the same facilities as JumpCut did. Features of the community are...

Video editing in your browser
The facility to export videos to YouTube, or embed them in your blog
Downloading edited videos to your computer in a number of formats
Commenting on each other's videos via the guestbook

These features make JayCut ideal for schools, and, as I have said many times now, the presence of a real, critical audience is a powerful incentive and motivator to young people, upon which schools should capitalize.

On another note, I've just seen yet again an expression I really hate - "children and young people". Tell me - what are children, if they are not young people?

A further thought about the netbook...

2010-04-04T17:00:00.000Z

I really don't know how I did this, but I missed from my list of software the Zoho suite, about which I have waxed lyrical in the past. Take a look at the tools they have in the cloud...

And they have a widget for your browser, too, which gives access to the suite with a few clicks. An extensive suite of powerful software - another twelve or so tools for the cloud PC. This is really a winning combination!

Jing is out

2010-04-03T12:03:00.000Z

OK, Jing had to go. It's not strictly cloud software anyway, although it allows file saving to Screencast, so it's no big deal as far as my cloud computing experiment is concerned. The crux of the matter is that, along with the MS .Net framework which it requires, Jing took up 667Mb of the limited available storage. Since I find screenclippers very useful, I have installed SRip32 instead - entirely disc-based, but at least it only uses 440k! Those choosing to use MS Office 2010 will have the fabulous One Note application, which has a screen-clipping function.

This is fun...

2010-04-02T12:11:00.001Z

Several days into my experiment, and it's going really well. This little netbook has a powersaving mode. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the downsides are of using it, but the upside is that the battery use now extends to over eight hours between charges.

So, what other online applications now appear on my browser toolbar, to make this the ultimate cloud computer?

Another plugin for Firefox - Cooliris for images, and, just because I can, a link to TagGalaxy for the best copyright-free images from Flickr.

As I said earlier, the netbook came with Skype for telephone, SMS, and voice- and video-conferencing. The netbook's built-in camera and microphones do a perfectly good job on this, as well as on Google Chat, which I've also tried.

Also on my toolbar, I have buttons for del.icio.us, for bookmarking web pages on the move, and for sharing them with others.

Of course, there will be schools (and this is intended to be a PC set up for everyday school use) who want their students to use proprietory software, so I've installed the beta MS Office 2010 as well - free at the moment, but likely to be sold in the region of £100, but I expect there will be some kind of licensing deal of educational establishments.

Finally, if you allow your students to listen to music while they are working, a shortcut to Spotify will supply them with all the music they are ever likely to need. This requires a small download to the solid-state disc drive.

I think I have it; what is, for me, the ideal computing solution for 21st century schools. Small, light, durable and cheap; having good battery charge life; able to share documents with other bluetooth-enabled devices; able to save documents to the cloud, to the school network, to USB devices and so on; connecting to a host of powerful applications from the cloud; having the enormous advantage of giving users the option of sharing documents and collaborating over their creation, and often the advantages of being part of an online user community.

But, of course, I may have missed out some really useful possible additions to my list of over forty cloud applications. Let me know what you think!

The experiment continues...

2010-03-31T22:50:00.000Z

Since cloud computing relies totally upon the web, the browser is the user's desk, and that user will install on the browser toolbar links to all of the most-used tools. My start page is my GMail inbox. From there, I can easily get to any and all of the Google apps I listed in my last post. There's a link on my toolbar to Aviary as well.

As mentioned previously, the Eee PC comes with a facility to store files in the cloud. However, there is a disadvantage with Eee Storage, in that it cannot be accessed with any other computer, so it is not a system for passing data between computers and between users. Google has such a system, but I prefer drop.io for this (who also offer simple but effective phone.io and present.io tools), and this drop and share facility is made available via a plug-in to my Firefox browser.

There may be users of this small netbook screen who will find certain web pages difficult to read because of the clutter. So I have a link to Readability (previously reviewed on this blog) on my toolbar.

For snipping web content into an online notebook, Memonic.

And for screen shots of any part of my screen, including moving images, Jing.

Six more tools, then - and still more to come!

Cloud computing in school

2010-03-31T08:01:00.000Z

So how am I going to implement cloud computing on my little netbook PC? What online software will I use in my experiment? For this is the kind of ICT I will be recommending for everyday use in the academy in which I teach; class sets of netbooks in all teaching rooms, kept on shelves like books, to be taken down and used as required, without the need to go to a special computer room; work saved in the cloud where it can be accessed at school, at home - anywhere, any time - without the need for memory sticks, emailing work to yourself, or iffy web connections to the school network! Since data and applications are in the cloud, there is no need for students (or teachers) to have a suite of expensive software at home, either, a need which can be a problem in millions households around the world.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating the abandonment of the school network. PCs more powerful than my Eee PC are still needed for high-end applications, for the Management Information System and for other administrative tasks. But, for everyday lessons, the netbook, using web-based software (and greatly reducing the load on the network), can cope admirably with most demands.

Already on my netbook I am using Google Docs. I have my 6th Form students doing their AS coursework in Google Docs, and sharing it with me across the Internet. That way, I can read their work, comment on it and feed back to them, any time I choose. This will soon be extended to Key Stage 3 learners, particularly for home assignments. Google Docs includes a spreadsheet and presentation software with the word-processor, as well as the recent addition of free storage space into which any kind of file may be uploaded.

While we're using Google, we'd do well to use GMail, Google Calendar, Tasks, Photos, Sites, Videos, Maps, Translate, News, Alerts, Blogger, Reader, Talk, Earth, Picasa and Sketchup. The last three apps each require a small piece of software to be installed on the netbook.

And, for artisitic applictions, we have the Aviary suite from a company who have recently teamed up with Google to offer their products under the Google umbrella.

Now that's 25 powerful applications already, with only three small programs actually installed on my computer, and not a penny spent.

And I've only just started!

Now THIS pleases me no end!

2010-03-30T13:55:00.004Z

Recently, I have been holding workshops for colleagues at school on the subject of the future of cloud computing in education, and I'm doing sessions on the same topic at this year's E2BN conference, so I thought that I would put my money where my mouth is, buy myself a netbook computer, and practise cloud computing long term. I purchased, for half the price I would have to spend on a box-standard laptop computer, an Asus Eee PC. And I am bowled over by it!

With just a 9.5" screen (very clear), it won't be everybody's choice, and the keyboard is small, too, but I'm considering these machines to be the everyday ICT tool for kids, and they'll find both of these matters far less problematic than I am ever likely to - and it's not much of a problem to me!. My model has no hard-drive, so it is even more robust for classroom and mobile use. Its solid-state data storage is limited - just 7.5 Gb on the D: drive - while the C: drive used for software is under 4 Gb, but this is no problem, as you will see.

The Eee has 3 USB sockets for external devices, an SD card slot - so another possibility of up to 16 Gb there, if you really feel you need it - VGA output, microphone and headphone sockets. It has bluetooth connectivity and an ethernet socket as well as wireless, which has an excellent range. And it has a camera and a pair of microphones The fully-charged battery pack gives over six hours of use between charges.

I was considering buying a netbook which ran under Linux, but am now pleased that I got an XP version. I have used one which had Windows CE, but I found that OS to be far too limited, supporting too few peripheral devices and a limited range of applications software. My machine came with the open source Star Office, Windows Live software, and Skype. I disabled IE7 and installed my preferred Firefox.

In due course, I shall uninstall Star Office, too. Why? Because I am convinced that the way to go in schools is to use online software and online data storage. I shall give the full rationale for this in another post.

The Eee comes with Eee Store, a simple application which facilitates quick and easy data storage online - in the cloud. Netbook users without this could equally use drop.io, box.net or the like. This blog and several others regularly feature online, web-based, "cloud" software which users of PCs like this could use routinely, rather than relying on disc-based software. And this is what I intend to do; rely entirely (with just a few small exceptions such as Skype, which needs a disc-based host) upon cloud computing for all of my ICT needs. And I shall report my sucesses and failures (failures?!) here on the blog. I am going to enjoy this!

Free online course for educators

2010-03-29T22:05:00.000Z

Although I am not far from retiring from teaching, I don't think I will ever lose my passion for the application of web technologies to enhance teaching and learning, and I'm very likely to sign of for this course from the "21st Century E-Teacher" initiative. How cool would it be for every teacher in your school to have done this?

21st Century e-Teacher from LearniT-TeachiT on Vimeo.

Stupid Old Teacher!

2010-03-19T18:47:00.002Z

When I sang the praises of Office 2010 some weeks ago, I completely overlooked the fact that the suite includes Outlook and a lovely application called OneNote which I have never come across in its 2007 incarnation. Outlook looks very ordinary, although as immensely useful and functional as it has always been. But OneNote is quite something else, and could be immensely useful in the classroom.

As seen in the images below, the tools are laid out in an intelligent, intuitive manner, making all facilities readily available.

The screen clipping tool shown on the second image above is also available from the launch button in the system tray of the PC. So is the audio recording facility, enabling voice recordings to be made straight to a OneNote page.

The beauty and power of this simple-to-use tool is that pages are populated simply by clicking and typing anywhere on the page you wish, and inserting any other kind of content similarly - images, movies, audio recordings, charts and graphs, whatever. Each page element sits in its own box, for positioning and editing, and video and audio files each have a controls bar. Every element may also have any one of a long list of tags applied, each of which is searchable within the document. I see little application for this tagging in schools, but would love to hear from you if you think otherwise!

Documents can be saved in several file types, to disc or to Microsoft Live SkyDrive, or shared across a local network or the Internet.

Ideal for students researching for a project, and quite probably for actually presenting the project, OneNote really needs to be tried in class, with a wide range of ages.

New template, new problems!

2010-03-13T12:05:00.000Z

My apologies! I had quite gone off my previous blog template. Its margins were far too wide, and I was finding it hard to embed things in the right navbar successfully. So, I chose this one. But the result has been that I have apprently lost all of my Apture snippet links for all past posts. I shall re-do them for the past few posts, but can't contemplate doing more!

Ho hum!

Find Chuck Norris!

2010-03-11T22:26:00.002Z

Students in my form group introduced me today to the cult of Chuck Norris, of whom I had never before heard. I smiled broadly as they shared with me several very funny websites devoted to this legend, but I laughed heartily when one of them typed into Google "Find Chuck Norris" and pressed "I'm feeling lucky". Google returns the answer...

It's good to know that Google can give some of their time simply to being silly and amusing people!
__________________________________________

No, wait! Silly me! What actually happens is that Google's "I'm feeling lucky" takes you to http://www.nochucknorris.com/ which is created to look like the Google page. Nearly missed that - still amusing though!

Grumpy Old Teacher's wiki - a reminder

2010-03-08T22:11:00.001Z

I posted some while back details of a wiki I had created to which I would like ICT educational professionals to contribute. Again, I invite my readers to add their thoughts to it.

It seems to be a very common experience amongst teachers of ICT ("Technology" or "EdTech" to some) that their head teachers and principals have little or no idea what ICT really is. Because of this lack of understanding, these teachers are not supported in their drive to implement thoroughgoing ICT in their school.

My wiki is an attempt to harness the experience, the creativity and innovativeness of ICT educators across the world to create a document which will explain in detail what ICT should be in the 21st century classroom. Ideally, in a world unshackled by the likes of the National Curriculum of the UK, what are the skills, concepts and knowledge which experts see as being the essential ingredients of modern, forward-looking ICT? The completed document would then be edited into a paper and made available to the online community of ICT Teachers for their use in educating their managers and colleagues.

Visit the wiki here. I invite you all to add your thoughts to these pages. If necessary, add new subpages for new topics. Add text to existing pages. Please avoid the temptation to edit the work of others. And pass the message around amongst your ICT teacher friends and colleagues! Please take this opportunity to build a truly influential document!

>>>>The wiki is now closed (16th April 2010)<<<<

Reading aid for browsers

2010-03-08T18:15:00.008Z

I'm going to try to make this my shortest post. Readability. Sits on your browser's toolbar. Browse to a page which has clutter around the central text - very disconcerting for those with visual impairment or reading difficulties - and press your "Readability" button.

Voilà! Brilliant! Simple!

Yenka is amazing!

2010-03-04T17:04:00.003Z

I am currently evaluating Yenka's Programming software for Schoolzone.co.uk, and I am very impressed by it. It is designed to assist in the teaching of flowcharting, computer control and programming. 3D models and animated characters can be programmed to perform a very wide range of movements through the creation of flowcharts which describe them. This can involve movement of a human character in simple dance to complex choreographed dance routines involving functions and iteration. The user may add backing tracks, either from a provided library, or imported from their own collection, and the characters will dance in time to the music. Images, animations and 3D models may be imported to create scenarios within which the characters move. These may come from the supplied library, but may also be imported from Google Sketchup, either made by the user, or taken from Google's huge 3D Warehouse.

The Programming software comes with a suite of applications for use in school - sixteen additional applications in total, for Maths, Science and Technology. Amazingly, Yenka offer a free license so that all students and teachers are able to use the software at home, and a full site license is a mere £450. It can be trialled free in schools for fifteen days.

Aimed at primary and secondary schools, the Programming software covers very adequately the demand of the control elements of National Curriculum ICT. Support is very thorough, with training videos provided, and a constant stream of emails with hints and tips regarding this and associated Yenka software, if you want them.

The software is very intuitive, so it will find a central place in most classrooms where control and programming are to be taught, being accessible from perhaps Years 4 or 5 to Year 9, and offering a broad spectrum of complexity of task across that age range. A fantastic resource!

Cloud computing is REALLY launched

2010-02-25T22:34:00.000Z

I have never been a major fan of Microsoft, for all sorts of reasons, but I have to confess that I applaud them now for their latest Office release - 2010. I am running the free beta version, and I am hugely impressed by it. At last MS have done something different and exciting, rather than just releasing a look-like-the-last-version-but-with-a-few-additional-fancy-bits version such as they've been doing with several previous "new" releases.

Office 2010 looks very good. It is modern, clean and uncluttered, with its tools sensibly grouped together and all easily accessible. It has been functionally improved in a number of ways too - I particularly like the PowerPoint. But, more to the point, it has taken the massive leap of in going into the cloud. The user installs a small bootstrap program onto their hard drive which invokes the office software when executed - Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The program is then downloaded onto your PC across the Internet for the duration of your work. When you close it, the software is deleted from memory. As one would expect from cloud software, files are stored "in the cloud" and can be shared with others around the globe, for viewing and collaboration. The final release price would seem to be in the region of £110 and £240, depending on the version (the cheapest is the Home & Student version for three users). I have found no license prices for schools.

Of course, cloud computing is not new. Google and Zoho have been for some years pioneers of web-based, online software providing high levels of functionality, and data storage - and that for free. And the much-awaited Google OS is bound to take the whole concept further forward for this particular corporate giant. But somehow Microsoft seem to me to have given cloud computing a certain credibility which it probably did not have before. Speaking as a teacher, I can well see how schools will now take the step of phasing cloud computing into their everyday use of ICT. It will not be for much longer the domain of the brave and the geeks. MS gives it "respectability", and I thank them for it. The day is in sight when our schools are no longer hindered by the inconvenience of having their ICT accesible only in special rooms packed with bulky desktop PCs. Laptop computers, which many have loathed for years because of their cumbersomeness and high price, will be a thing of the past. Instead, classrooms will be able to house sets of very lightweight netbook computers, wireless connected, with solid-state data storage instead of the far more delicate hard discs - because data and applications will now be stored in the cloud.

Oh, brave new world...!

This HAS to be the future...

2010-02-20T15:58:00.005Z

...but will the educational world be geared up to embrace it? My eldest daughter pointed me to this TED Talks video of a prototype human/computer interface with phenomenal capabiliity and potential. The hardware is cheap to produce, and the software is being provided open source! What a generous man!

The video is about fourteen minutes long, but well worth the time - it gets really amazing towards the end if you really can't afford that long.

How will schools, colleges and universities ever keep up with this kind of development? Which government agencies are planning to fund this in our educational establishments? Which advisers for education to government are starting conversations about the application of these phenomena? Any?

For more on this amazing invention, watch another TED Talks video here.

Computers blur the difference between learning and leisure

2010-02-20T15:46:00.001Z

I read recently that a study carried out for Microsoft shows that 37% of secondary pupils in the UK use computers for study every day at home. Strangely, perhaps, this is greater use than at school - where 30% of pupils are using computers each day. Further, of the students aged 11 to 18, more than 90% use a home computer for schoolwork at least once a week. Good news for schools!

At the other end of the scale, however, the government estimates that there are about a million children without the internet at home.

Overall, 71% of young people say that using the computer is among their favourite activities. Parents use computers as a leisure activity, too, but only 65% of them say that it is one of their favourite activities. However, despite their lower level of use and the high level of game playing by their children, parents continue to believe that having a computer at home is valuable to their children's education.

Microsoft's Ray Fleming makes the point that home and school use are often very different. Schools use ICT in a very structured way, whereas it is used as a much more informal tool at home. Mr Fleming says,

"There is an increasing blurring between learning-time and leisure-time and so computers in the home are becoming as important as those in the classroom. There are so many sources of information, that the challenge now is not about finding information but finding the most useful questions."

Perhaps schools ought to be finding ways of making the application of ICT far less formal. Embedding it deeply in the whole curriculum would do surely this, and using ICT simply as one of a number of available tools, rather than making it special as most schools do now, by having specialized ICT rooms into which classes have to move in order to have access to the technologies.

Google goof rectified

2010-02-15T11:50:00.015Z

Late last year, Google made their biggest mistake since Images - they withdrew the amazingly simple yet massively useful Notebook! Since then, I have been looking around for a suitable replacement. There have been dozens of blog posts on the subject, and I have trialled many of the suggestions, but I cannot find one as good as Memonic.

It works pretty much like Google Notebook, except that it does not have the beauty of being part of Google's larger suite of online software with which Notebook was compatible. However, a quick registration with Memonic, and a click to their installation page provides the user with a widget which is simply dragged to your browser (in the case of Firefox, to the Bookmark Toolbar).

Now, when coming across any text and/or pictures on the web (or anything else on your screen) which you want to capture, simply highlight it and click the button. Another click takes you to the webpage where your clip has been saved.

This can then be shared, printed and organised into folders. Simple, but very effective - and useful!

Oh, and a further grump about Google (which I rarely do!)... I had a lot of clipped articles in my Notebook account when the app was withdrawn. It is still there, and Google say that it will continue to be safe there, but I wanted to export it - Google Docs was the best available option for me - so I went ahead to do just that...

...every time I tried over a period of two weeks! Of course, Google being the corporate monster they are, there is no way to report this to a person, so I had to resort to copy and paste. It remains to be seen if Memonic exports better.

A useful end to a lesson on esafety

2010-02-09T09:48:00.000Z

PBSKids is an American website for young kids, for which I have no use in the British secondary academy in which I teach, but it does have a nice little game which can be used by Year 7 students at the end of a good lesson on esafety.

At the end of the game, the successful student is presented with a personalised "Web License", a certificate of safety-savvy which younger kids will value. Try it!

Make the Future

2010-02-09T09:46:00.001Z

This short, challenging video looks at ideas drawn from research commissioned under the Beyond Current Horizons programme, which considers the future of education in the light of social and technological change.

For more on this topic, visit
www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk
www.visionmapper.org.uk

All educators really ought to be engaging with this kind of thinking, if education is going to keep up with rapid change. The problem is, the present is far too complicated to allow us the time!

Teachers beware!

2010-02-03T18:08:00.001Z

The following email is being passed around between students at the moment. Entitled "289 things to do when you're bored in class", it is at least very creative! Look out for it happening in your classes!

1. Speak in improper English like ain’t, and when the teacher corrects, nod like you understand and continue to speak improperly.
2. Randomly get out of your seat and sit on the floor.
3. When it is very quiet, raise your hand and insist it is too loud.
4. If the person next to you is quiet, turn and inform them that they are distracting you.
5. When the teacher calls on you to answer the question, answer `Two’
6. Randomly raise your hand and say “The answer is three”
7. Give your teacher a note that uses improper English and misspelled words. Have the note insisting that you are `the most bestest’ in the class and demand to be moved up.
8. During a test, tell the teachers `the voices’ are making you cheat
9. Colour red dots all over your arm and show the teacher, and tell her/him that you are allergic to School.
10. Talk about the road kill squirrel you saw on your way to school. Say that it is your dinner. Talk in a redneck voice.
11. Take out sock puppets and play with them, and occasionally have them grab your classmate’s hair. When the teacher looks, keep the sock on your hand and point to your classmate and tell the teacher that the classmate is attacking you with puppets
12. If your teacher walks around the room during the test, cover your test and glare at them suspiciously.
13. If your teacher walks around the room during a test, raise your hand and tell the teacher that they are cheating off you.
14. When the teacher calls on you to answer a question, talk in a creepy voice and say `I’ll never tell’ and a few questions later raise your hand and ask why you haven’t been allowed to answer a question yet.
15. Ask to go to the bathroom. Stay in your seat, and when asked if you are going, say `I just did’
16. Raise your hand and point to a person on the other side of the room. Insist that that person is cheating off you.
17. Say that someone across the room is using their telepathic (mind-reading) abilities to cheat off of you.
18. Ask to go to the bathroom. Get up and walk into the wall. Furrow your brow, glare at the wall and walk into it again. Smile sheepishly and then walk out the door.
19. When coming back from bathroom, walk through the door. Then ask how you got there.
20. Raise your hand and ask if you can be excused to skip class.
21. Meow and bark occasionally.
22. Hold your head and groan, then tell your teacher that your multiple personalities are fighting.
23. Walk into class and look around confused. Ask where you are, then say “Oh, this is school I thought this was McDonalds
24. Read a book, and when class starts, raise your hand and say that they are interrupting your reading
25. Stumble into class, slur your words and tell your teacher `I swear to drunk I’m not God’
26. Bring handcuffs into class and wear a plastic fake police badge. Tell your teacher that he/she is under arrest.
27. Walk into class with handcuffs on your wrist and say “Sorry for being late, I just broke out of prison.” (Even if you aren’t late)
28. Meow to answer a question
29. Raise your hand and introduce everyone to your imaginary friend Bob. Then loudly whisper to Bob saying that you hate this class.
30. Chew gum in class. If teacher says `I hope you brought enough for everybody’ take out packs of gum and start passing out gum.
31. Smack gum loudly. When told to throw it out, take out the gum and hold in on your finger. Then insist you don’t have any gum, and put it back in your mouth.
32. Stand up and introduce yourself at the beginning of class (even though everyone knows you). Inform everyone that you have had `the problem’ for three years now. Then act confused and ask if the class is Alcoholics Anonymous.
33. Shove your heaviest book off your desk. Repeat. Glare at someone else every time the teacher looks.
34. Cry out randomly that everyone is against you.
35. Tell your teacher there is a disturbance the Force
36. Make a cone shape out of paper and glue red tissue paper to the top. Scribble/draw red and orange all over it. Wear it on your head and tell everyone that you’re a volcano.
37. Tell your teacher you don’t need to do your homework because you’re skipping school tomorrow.
38. Tell your teacher that you’re going to be sick tomorrow.
39. In anything but foreign language class (if you have one), speak in a foreign language.
40. Write `Gullible’ on a piece of paper. Tape that piece of paper to the floor, ceiling, or chalkboard. Then tell everyone there is gullible written on the ___(floor ceiling or chalkboard). If they don’t believe you point, then say `Made you look ’
41. Randomly laugh hysterically
42. Yell out STOP DROP AND ROLL
43. Tell your teacher to get ready to evacuate the school, for you are going to pull a fire alarm
44. Write `objects in mirror are dumber than they appear’ on a small mirror. Ask people if they need to borrow your mirror.
45. Do the above, except on the bathroom mirrors.
46. Wear tissues on your head
47. Come into class with sunglasses, and pretend to shoot at your teacher with your fingers. Then loudly whisper `Sorry, I had to get rid of the alien scum’
48. Pass around a petition against petitions
49. Raise your hand, act terrified and cry, saying `You didn’t have to be so mean ’
50. If someone speaks over the intercom, curl up in fetal position under your desk and say `It’s the voices again.’
51. Hum `If your happy and you know it’ loudly then randomly start to cry
52. Try to get your class to sing “We don’t need no education”
53. Randomly get up and run a lap around the room, then sit down and act as if nothing had happened.
54. Get up and get a tissue, then just stand and stare at the tissue. If asked what you are doing by the teacher, claim that you are having a staring contest with the tissue and you’re sure you are about to win.
55. Pretend to slap a fly and then go `mmmm snack time’
56. Lead your class in a sing-a-long.
57. Poke the person sitting next to you repeatedly until they get angry, then blame it on your imaginary friend.
58. Go into class, and then run to the window. Sadly proclaim that your imaginary friend just committed suicide.
59. Invent an imaginary hamster. Ask everyone if they would like to hold him.
60. In a creepy voice say to everyone `You will die in seven days’ Act like nothing had happened.
61. (If in a school that requires uniforms) Loudly talk about how one person’s uniform is `so two minutes ago’ (even though you are wearing the same thing)
(If in a school with no uniforms) Put on a weird shirt and loudly whisper about everyone’s bad fashion sense.
62. Raise your hand and wave it around like you know the answer. Then ask the teacher why they called on you.
63. Raise your hand and wave it eagerly like you know the answer. Do this for every question. When called on, answer every question `Abraham Lincoln.’
64. Make up a language and when no one understands it act like they are crazy.
65. Laugh hysterically and proclaim `You shall all perish Perish I say ’ Act like nothing had happened.
66. Try to hold a swordfight with rulers.
67. Ask to go to the bathroom. Get up, run into the wall and pretend to faint. Lay there until someone runs over to help you up, then walk out the door to go to the bathroom.
68. Purposely drop your pen. Ask someone to pick it up, and when they do defensively say `That’s mine’
69. Read with your textbook upside-down.
70. Bring in a pillow and explain “The desk is too hard for sleeping.”
71. Bring in a pillow and lie in the aisle and pretend to go to sleep.
72. Walk down the aisle and pretend someone tripped you. Glare at that person for the rest of class.
73. Get up to sharpen your pencil or find a tissue, then stand up there and look around. Then cry out `I’m lost ’
74. Create a map of the classroom. Use the map whenever you need to find your seat or a tissue or the pencil sharpener.
75. Carefully place the tissue box in a certain spot at the beginning of class. In class, scream or gasp and run over to the tissue box, acting like it was moved. Carefully fix it.
76. Repeat.
77. Ask if you can teach the class.
78. Draw caricatures of your teacher. Sign the paper with a classmate’s name/initials. Leave the pictures on the classmate’s desk.
79. Act jittery all class, shaking and twitching. Recoil whenever someone passes or tries to touch you.
80. Knit.
81. Start a poker game. Try to get your teacher to join.
82. Wear Mardi Gras beads and a party hat, and throw confetti into the air when school lets out.
83. Talk about your dream job as a janitor.
84. Bring a bottle to school. Drink out of it all day. Cry if it gets confiscated.
85. Act like you’re in the army, saluting to teachers and calling them ma’am and sir. March everywhere.
86. Poke someone.
87. Twice.
88. Bring crutches to school.
89. Ask your teachers if they find sick pleasure in tormenting you.
90. If a teacher isn’t already in the classroom, when they enter, inform them that they are late and should report to the principal.
91. Put raisins over your teeth and grin widely at everyone you meet.
92. When you get homework, stand up, outraged, and yell that you’re going to sue.
93. Convince someone to pretend to be your lawyer. Bring them to school the following day.
94. Dress up as the Phantom of the Opera or Dracula or other cape wearing people. Swish your cape.
95. A lot.
96. Whenever the bell rings or an ambulance/police car passes, yell about the pigs coming to get you, and run out of the classroom.
97. Like, say `like,’ like, a lot…like
98. Speak with an accent, love.
99. Do the chicken dance.
100. If any of these get you in trouble, grumble loudly about how you hate Sharpies.
101.Count how many times the professor uses ?uh,? ?umm,? or ?like? during an entire lecture.
102.Try to hold your breath for as long as you can without passing out. Time yourself. Record your time. Repeat.
103.Do aerobic exercises in your head so that by the end of the day, you can think to yourself how ?athletic? you were today.
104.Write a play about an angry lobster, a happy penguin, and an evil genius.
105.Plug your ears and try to see if you can lip-read what the professor is saying.
106.Look at all the dots in the ceiling and try to find your favorite cartoon character.
107.Arm wrestle/play thumb war with yourself and accuse your right arm/left thumb of cheating.
108.Come up with a list of all the words you can make out of the letters in ?smorgasbord.?
109.Say a word silently to yourself (e.g. ?broccoli?) so many times that it loses meaning. Then try to remember what it meant in the first place.
110.Draw a flipbook at the bottom right corner of your notebook.
111.Keep your eyes open without blinking for as long as you can.
112.Re-enact or make up your very own 50-minute silent movie.
113.Look out the window and try to find cool-looking clouds that look like they came straight out of a Disney animated movie.
114.Start knitting yourself a scarf for the cold winter ahead.
115.Play cat’s cradle with the cute boy or girl sitting next to you. Who knows, you might get lucky and score a screen name.
116.Fold paper cranes so you’ll have a hefty collection by the end of the semester.
117.Switch seats in a clandestine manner every time the professor turns to face the blackboard. Count how many times you can do this without getting caught.
118.Stare at someone until they turn around. Then keep staring and give them a maniacal smile. Be sure your eyes are open real wide to enhance the effect.
119.Try not to fall asleep.
120.. Pretend you’re a tree.
121. Try to develop psychic powers, then use ’em.
122. Inflate a beachball and throw it around the room.
123. Sing Show Tunes.
124. Make loud animal noises then deny doing it.
125. Think of new pick lines. See if they work.
126. Pretend you’re flying a jet fighter in the Gulf War.
127. Churn some butter.
128. Conceive a brand new language.
129. Walls made of brick. Count ’em.
140. Plot revenge against someone.
141. Think of nicknames for everyone you know.
142. See how long you can hold your breath.
143. Take your pants off and give them to the professor.
14. Chew on your arm until someone notices.
145. Change seats every three minutes.
146. Think of ways to cheat at Trivial Pursuit.
147. Shave.
148. Run across the room, tag someone and say You’re it.
149. Announce to the class that you are God and that you’re angry.
150. Think of five new ways to use your shoes.
151. Start a wave.
152. Walk around the room begging for spare change.
153. Roast marshmallows.
154. Practice phrasing your answers in the form of a question.
155. Crawl around the room humming the music from Mission Impossible.
156. Take apart your desk.
157. Pretend to communicate with your home planet.
158. Play rock-paper-scissors with yourself. Accuse your left hand of cheating.
159. Do a quick tapdance routine.
160. Try bird-watching.
161. Walk up the aisle yelling, Popcorn Hot popcorn here .
162. Throw your backpack at someone.
163. Run to the window, then say, Sorry, I thought I saw the Bat-signal .
164. Ask the person in front of you to marry you.
165. Start laughing really hard and say, Oh, now I get it. .
166. Make a sundial.
167. Give yourself a new identity.
168. Write a screenplay about a diabetic Swedish girl who can’t swim.
169. Dig an escape tunnel.
170. Announce your candidacy for President.
171.Make a paper football and get someone to play with you. When they put their hands up into a little goal, flick the football at the teacher and immediately go back to doing your work.
172.Out of nowhere, or when it is quiet, say loud enough for the class to hear When I say heeee-aay, you say hoooo, Heeee-aay and see how many people say ho
173.At another quiet time, shout out Marco and then in a squeaky voice shout out Polo senior
174.Practice your ty-chi. Wave your arms all around like your really know what you are doing. Meditate. Humm as loud as you can and when your teacher says something about it, act all offended. Do you have a problem with my religion, sir ?
175.If one of your friends is drinking something, in the middle of a drink start chanting chug chug chug
176.When the class is very quiet, say in a casual voice Knock knock
177.When the class is quiet, sigh and say This class is really boring
Shoot rubber bands at someone, when they accuse you look confused and point to the person to the left of you. After that, point to the person on the right of you etc...
178.If you are black start singing country music, if you are white start rapping.
179.Make as many paperballs as you can and set them on your desk in a giant pile. If anyone looks at you, look tough and nod at them.
180.If you are a male, start singing Brittany Spears’s Hit me baby one more time complete with raise the roof action.
181.Take everything out of your backpack and stack it on your desk. Take out a sheet of paper and take inventory of your stuff.
182.Take an empty gum wrapper and put it in your palm, then signal someone by going pssssst. Hey Make them lean all close to you and get them thinking you have something interesting to say. Look around and then give them the gumwrapper.
183.See how many tiny paper balls you can set on the person in front of you without them knowing it. Tie someone’s shoes together and kick them.
184.Use a kick me sign. As a challenge, see how many people you can put a kick me sign on without them knowing it.
185.Start singing Can you feel the love tonight from the Lion King.
186.Fall asleep. When you wake up say shit like I had a dream and you were in it. And you You too ...
187.Blurt out chinese waiter talk. SHICKEN FRIE RIE, SEVEN DOLLA
188. Insist that your e mail address is: Xena-Warrior-Princess@companyname.com
189.Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
190.Encourage your colleagues to join you in a little synchronised chair dancing.
191 Develop an unnatural fear of staplers.
192. Finish all your sentences with In accordance with the prophecy.
193.Dont use any punctuation
195.As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
196.Send e-mail to the rest of the company to tell them what you’re doing. For example, If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the bathroom, in Stall #3.
197Have your co-workers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Hard.
198. Tell your children over dinner. Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.
199UsE RAnDoM cAPiTaliZaTiON iN EvEryTHiNg YOu wrITe.
200Follow delivery men around in pure James Bond style, but make it very obvious.
201Persistently call your teachers ’sweetcheeks’ and wink at them in front of everyone.
202Whenever you answer the phone, do so in a French accent, and slowly change it to a Japanese accent.203Have races in the corridors with chairs that don’t have wheels on them
204Hold open automatic doors for people.
205Threaten to jump out of a ground floor window.
206Deliberately get colleagues names wrong.
207Wear socks on the outside of your shoes.
208End all sentences with .co.uk .
209Hang a two-foot long piece of toilet roll from the back of your pants and act genuinely surprised when someone points it out.
210In a meeting or crowded situation, slap your forehead repeatedly and mutter, Shut up, damn it, all of you just shut up .
211 Leave your zipper open for one hour. If anyone points it out, say, Sorry, I really prefer it this way .
212. Read the dictionary backwards and look for any hidden messages.
213 Stare at people though the tines of a fork and pretened they’re in jail.
214 When someone says Have a nice day , tell them you have other plans .
215 Hold up a piece of paper that says in large letters CHECK YOUR FLY .
216 Address the professor as your excellency .
217 Shout WOW after every sentence of the lecture.
218 Ask whether you have to come to class.
219 Every few minutes, take a sheet of notebook paper, write Signup Sheet at the top, and start passing it around the room.
220 Stand to ask questions. Bow deeply before taking your seat after the professor answers.
221 Interrupt every few minutes to ask the professor, Can you spell that?
222 Disassemble your pen. Accidentally propel pieces across the room while playing with the spring. Go on furtive expeditions to retrieve the pieces. Repeat
223 In the middle of lecture, ask your professor whether he believes in ghosts.
224 Bring a small cactus to class with you. Raise your hand, and when you’re called on, say that the cactus has a question. Turn and look at the cactus, as if you’re waiting for it to say something. After a few moments, shrug, and wait for your professor to move on. Do this once a day, and become increasingly irritated with the cactus every time, sighing heavily and giving it evil looks when it fails to "speak." When you leave the room after class, start yelling at the cactus, "I can’t believe you embarrassed me AGAIN...."
225 Bring a vacuum to class. Halfway through class, stand up and start using it. If your professor objects, explain that you "can’t stand sitting in this pigsty any longer." Keep vacuuming, grumbling angrily.
226 Brush your teeth during class. While doing so, raise your hand as if you have a question, and mumble your question incoherently while brushing, spewing toothpaste all over the place. If your professor objects to your actions, go on a tirade about proper oral hygiene.
227 Carve a bust of your professor out of cheese. Tie a ribbon around it, and present it to him/her at the beginning of class. Demand extra credit.
228 Come to class every day wearing scary Halloween masks. Try to get your professor to guess who you are. Shoot him/her with a water pistol, scream, and run around the room knocking things over. Say, "Pretty scary, huh?"
229 Come to class with a jar full of angry hornets. Five minutes into class, release the hornets, scream, and run away.
230 Dispute everything your professor says, no matter how simple. Try to get him/her to "prove" everything to you. Rant and rave about what a big liar your professor is. Yell at students who are taking notes, saying, "Stop writing down all these lies!"
231 Draw hearts and flowers on the backs of your papers and tests. Next to them, write things like, "You’re the best, even though you suck" and "You’re the worst professor in the world, but I still love you."
232 Get the whole class to show up a few minutes early, and throw a surprise party for your professor. Insist that you can’t start class until he/she has a piece of cake. Keep asking people when the strippers are going to arrive.
233 Hide somewhere inside the classroom. Wait for your professor to take attendance. Don’t come out when he/she calls your name. Halfway through class, jump out and yell, "Just kidding! I’m here! Fooled you again!" Sit down and be quiet for the rest of class.
234 Instead of taking notes, do an abstract painting during every class. Call the paintings things like, "Professor Acting Like Mr. Know-It-All" or "Idiot Who Doesn’t Know What The Hell He’s Talking About." Give the paintings to your professor as gifts.
235 Sit way at the back of the room, up against the wall, to get as far away from your professor as possible. While he/she is lecturing, shout out things like, "What!?" and "Speak up! You’re mumbling!" If your professor advises you to sit closer to the front, tell him/her you can’t because you’re scouting the room for "assassins."
236 Start asking questions in a fake foreign language. Act like your professor is stupid for not being able to understand you. Get other people in the class to start speaking the fake language too, and have frequent discussions during class. Act like you’re really interested in what you’re discussing. If your professor tries to interrupt or stop you, act annoyed and motion for him/her to quiet down.
237 Start asking questions in a fake foreign language. Act like your professor is stupid for not being able to understand you. Get other people in the class to start speaking the fake language too, and have frequent discussions during class. Act like you’re really interested in what you’re discussing. If your professor tries to interrupt or stop you, act annoyed and motion for him/her to quiet down.
238 Wait for your professor to mention a date, and then yell out, "Bingo!" Apologize, and explain that you got confused.
239 Wrap yourself in bandages and come to class in a wheelchair. Throughout class, cry a lot and moan things like, "Why me?" and "Please kill me!" Get up during class, like your going to miraculously start walking. Instead, fall down, cry out in pain, and wait for someone to help you back up. When class is over say, "I feel better now," leap up, and run home.
240 organize a bunch of people in one class to emit a low humming noise, keeping straight faces.
241 organize a whole bunch of people to fall off their chairs at the same time.
242 organize a whole bunch of people to drop their pencils/pens at a preset time.
243 superglue quarters to the floor, count how many people try to pick them up.
244 write fake love notes and slip them into people’s lockers
245 if someone near you falls asleep in class, tie their shoelaces to the desk/chair.
246 lay a paper towel roll on the floor at the top of the steps and give it a kick, making sure you’ve taped the loose end to the floor already.
247 place chalk inside the erasers so the teachers end up putting big ’ol lines across the blackboard.
248 when you use the bathroom, get a LOT of soap on your hands (If it’s the slimy kind), but don’t wash it off, just leave goo all over doorknobs, railings, etc.
249 screaming gibberish in crowded hallways is always good for a laugh.
250 leave a Snickers bar in the toilet.
251 ask people to hold your hand when going down the stairs
252 Type every word in a different font. Alternate really big fonts with really small fonts.
253 Bring candles and ince
NEW!!!!!!!!!!!!
254 In a test open up your bag look inside and say "got enough air in there?"
255 Run around the school suspiciously with your hands in a gun shape while humming the misson impossible tune
256 look at the person next to you for a while then say "your one of them!" then run out the class room
257 when the class is quiet look around and aks some one if their cell phone just rang
258 drop your pencil on the floor if some one trys to pick it up for you Scream "hey thats mine!"
259 stand in front of the class and pretend you are a flight attendent and review the emergency procedures and exits

EVEN newer!!!!!!!!!!!!
260 call everyone bob
261 name your pen Mr pen talk to him often, cry and go mad if Mr pen commits suicide (falls off the table)
262 Have a funeral for Mr pen
263 Pick one word any word .e.g. TIMMY use this word and only this word when replying to a question
264 reapeat yourself constantly
265 be insane and be proud of it
266 reapeat yourself constantly
267 Put a sign on your desk that says "Out of my mind be back soon" Then go to sleep. If your teacher wakes you up Scream CAN'T YOU READ THE SIGN? then go back to sleep.
278 reapeat yourself constantly (annoying aint it!)
279 (When you are taking a true false test) Whenever the answer is false stand up, grab your hair with both hands, and scream LIES ALL LIES, sit acting like nothing happend and repeat.
280 Start having fights with yourself out loud over which one of your personalitys is better. Start to cry and say "I love you both why can't we all just get along" And if you are realy insane have your personalitys hug and make up. Then have all of your personalitys gather round to sing kumbya my lord! (I suggest you do this when it is really quiet in the room it scares more people)
281.Pluck out someone's hair and yell, "DNA!!!"
282.during an english class raise your hand and say the sentence : sorry, i dont speak english! or, "Sorry i dont speak (Blank)" if you have a foreign language where u put the name of the language in the blank.
283.teacher bingo
have everyone in the class write down 6 words and when the teacher says one of your words, you cross it off
when all your words have gone, stand up and shout BINGO!!! then sit down and carry on working
284.when asked a questions, answer god, then to explain your answer, say because god is the answer to everything * works better at a Christian school*
285.When u come bak to da class hit the door as hard as you can. Then say somethin like :"ma bad" or "wasnt me" or "ITS DA DOORS FAULT~!!!"
286. When your teacher isnt looking squeeze an empty plastic bottle of water and open the cover very fast so the cap flies off.(IT SOUNDS LIKE AN EXPLOSION)
287. Randomly run out of the class shouting "the germans are coming,the germans are coming".
288. Start speaking ghetto really really loud, but say the things in a way that you sound like you know what you're talking about, when you really arn't making any sense what-so-ever.like stand up and say "mah swagga b all lyke trippin n shizz dawg!".
289. Eviscerate the person next to you with a meat hook and pretend like nothing happened. lol. (read less)

Every Student Needs an mp3 Player in Class

2010-01-28T21:05:00.002Z

I have written before about the value of students being allowed to use mobile phones and mp3 players in class, but never with as much detail and imagination as Russell Briere, formerly a teacher in Alberta. He writes thus in a paper I read just a few days ago...

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed an increase use in mp3 players in the hallways this year. Some of the more advanced players can hold up to 15,000 songs. The mp3 player is becoming part of a fashion trend that compliments the music culture they live in. How long does it take a student to rip, download and manage 15,000 songs? Students spend hours organizing music files on their computer before they synchronize with their mp3 player on the way out the door. File management has taken on a whole new meaning when you need to find that ‘one song’ to prepare you for the day. For me, it’s a playlist that fits my mood; whether it’s a sample of Christian music, 80s tunes or fast tempo hockey music, all are one click away on a 3.6 ounce mp3 player built by Apple called the iPod.

Do you allow mp3 players into your classroom?
No?
Why not?

Explore the educational power hidden in Apple’s latest iPod Photo edition:

1. Audiobooks
Later this week, Apple is launching their online music store in Canada, offering over 8,000 audiobooks available for quick and easy download directly to the student’s iPod. The iPod player remembers where you left off, picking up at the same location next time you revisit the novel study in class. Often, it’s that initial connection a teacher tries to make in order to motivate a student to read. Do you think your students would find this digital experience engaging? In fact, pick up another language by downloading Italian, German or French files for easy access before your next school mission trip.

2. Photo Database
The latest edition of the iPod can hold a maximum of 25,000 pictures on its 60GB hard drive. Take the iPod along on your next field trip, connect a digital camera and transfer your photo collection off the camera flash card for future analysis; on the 2 inch color 220X176 liquid crystal iPod display, or project through a television via S-Video, or share the slideshow on the classroom projector via composite video, while playing a music track in the background through a stereo connection. Think of the possibilities! Students are now collecting, organizing and sharing digital pictures of their learning experience. Whether it’s photos of tree leaves, microscope slides, textbook diagrams, architectural designs, titration indicator changes, zoo slides, mission trip moments, or slideshows of school worships and concerts, the applications are endless.

3. Voice Recorder
Turn your iPod into a voice recorder with an accessory made by Griffin, challenging students to rehearse their presentations, summarize notes, or take the lesson home for review later that night. Ask students to rehearse the steps involved in math, reinforcing the sequence required to solve those large trigonometry or transformation questions. Record your favorite bible scripture for the day or leave a warm and fuzzy compliment for a friend in your class.

4. Calendar
Take your digital calendar and address book with you everywhere you go. Test and assignment schedules can be downloaded to each iPod at the beginning of a course. Students can be prompted to make important meetings and deadlines with the alarm feature. Mark important events on the calendar and set the iPod to remind students the day before.

5. Firewire Hard Drive
Imagine a digitized course review folder made up of interactive PowerPoints, comprehensive diagrams, old government exam pdfs, and a complete library of Access TV videos? How much hard drive space would a folder of this magnitude occupy? The last one I designed for my grade 12 class was too big to fit on a CD, email home or squeeze on to a USB thumb drive. The iPod operates as an external hard drive when connected to any computer. Simply plug the iPod into your computer via firewire and transfer your files at a blistering 400MBps. How long will it be before Apple builds an iPod Movie edition? Not sure where to find those educational videos to enhance your lesson? Check out http://www.UnitedStreaming.com for a complete K-12 library of Access TV QuickTime videos.

Combined with Apple’s iTunes software, a teacher can manage the student’s iPod file list, ensuring maximum productivity while used in class activities. Still worried about students using the iPod tool for listening to music instead of reading their book or studying their cell diagrams? Check out the FM Transmitter accessory made by Griffin, which turns the iPod into a radio station. Set each student to a different frequency, and tune in to each iPod from your desk as a random check.

Take it one more step by connecting an IR remote control to operate a student’s iPod from across the room. Contact your local Apple Education representative for more information. Keep parents informed before they hit the malls these holidays. For a reasonable price, students can now manage their entire course from a piece of technology no larger than a deck of cards.

Oh, by the way, I think all teachers should have access to the same technology in advance to uncover the real educational value of an iPod. Once an mp3 player, now a handheld tool every student could use to best organize their studies.

How many head teachers and principals would be won over by those arguments, I wonder!

Ban PowerPoint?

2010-01-28T17:43:00.004Z

"I think PowerPoint is the one bit of software that is holding back ICT skills development in school - in fact, I am thinking of removing it from our computer system!

Used appropriately, PowerPoint is an excellent tool for what it is intended for - making presentations. However, in every school I have been into across the country (for BSF), PP is the one that is being used inappropriately. I have seen everything from letters (CVs) and posters, to leaflets being produced with it. Staff lack of skills and understanding are mainly to blame;

"Go in the ICT room, use the Internet to find everything you can about XYZ, paste it into PP and print it out" - Death by PowerPoint MKII.

We need to get staff to move on, and definitely expect students to move on, otherwise their skills will never develop beyond PP. I also wonder how many IWB are out there, having cost £1200 each and being used solely for projecting a diet of PP."

(Clive Cartmell, writing to Hamilton House Mailings Ltd.)

An age-old problem now, no doubt in many schools across the globe. What's to be done about it? What are you doing, my teacher readers, to overcome this entrenched habit? If we remove the dreaded software from the network, with what do we replace it, that won't be similarly misapplied?

Black is green!

2010-01-25T19:33:00.004Z

I'm bowled over by Heap Media's environmentally friendlier search page, "Blackle". Being composed almost entirely of black pixels, rather than the white of Google, Blackle uses less energy from your monitor. The page displays a report of how many watt hours of energy it has saved.

Like many "lesser" search pages, Blackle is driven by Google, so it makes an excellent alternative to the standard Google page. Environmentally-aware students of mine love this, and many have made the move to using Blackle routinely. What a pity Google don't follow this example, and change their search page to black. Just imagine the energy savings worldwide!

When I showed this to my Year 7 classes, they in turn showed me some fun search pages - purpoogle, tattoodle and isearchpink being the ones I remember at the moment!

OCR Nationals under fire

2010-01-18T17:26:00.000Z

I quote the Times Educational Supplement here, without comment. What more needs to be said?

A qualification that Ofsted has warned is of “doubtful value” has become the fourth most popular 14-19 course in English schools, The TES has learned.

A 669 per cent rise in entries in the last two years means the OCR National level 2 in ICT has been used in more than half of secondaries and is now being taken by more pupils than many GCSEs in maths, English and science.

In March the schools watchdog said the course taught pupils what they already knew, neglected essential skills and was causing a sharp decline in ICT post-16.

But Greg Watson, chief executive of the OCR exam board said this week that the verdict was “subjective”. “When we asked Ofsted to give us evidence for statements like that, there was very little,” he said.

The qualification was only introduced in 2004 but had 242,878 registrations last summer, which meant only AQA’s English and English literature GCSEs and Edexcel’s maths GCSE were more popular.

Mr Watson said he expected the growth to continue because teachers enjoyed teaching OCR Nationals and pupils found them “motivating, very relevant and very clear in explaining what is expected and what they are trying to achieve”.

But other critics have described the ICT level 2 National as a “tick-box” course. In 2007 The TES revealed that consultants from the Government’s National Strategies had found the standards needed for a pass were generally equivalent to those expected of the average 11-year-old.

The longest version is deemed equivalent to four good GCSEs for league tables despite needing around half the teaching time and some schools are believed to simply be using the qualification to boost their table positions.

OCR denies this, arguing that schools are offering it to compliment GCSEs in other subjects and pointing out that only one in seven Nationals are awarded in the four GCSE version.

But the board’s own papers show that all versions of the ICT level 2 National involve considerably less teaching time, whatever number of GCSEs they are deemed equivalent to.

Asked whether he thought entries would drop under the Conservatives’ plan to bar vocational qualifications from the main school league tables, Mr Watson said: “I don’t think so and I hope not.

“Schools’ main driver should be to provide the right sort of qualification for each individual learner and the incredibly positive feedback we have shows teachers value the Nationals in that sense.”

The board offers the vocational qualifications in nine subjects. But the popularity of ICT dwarves the rest, accounting for 83 per cent of all OCR National entries.

Ofsted’s report did not name the ICT vocational courses it criticised. But The TES understands the authors were worried about the OCR National and Edexcel’s Diploma in Digital Applications, with particular concerns about the OCR course.

Opinion was split on the TES Forums. A grammar school teacher said the OCR National was “the most engaging ICT course currently available”. But another contributor described it as “soul destroying”.

Snow again!

2010-01-06T10:18:00.003Z

And no school again! We ended last term like this, and this is the third day of the new term. And it's serious snow! I'm going to try running a webcam in my sidebar using Fonomo, which I reviewed last Saturday. Back later!

[LATER] Oh dear - worrying! Fonomo's not working any more! The user community forum suggests I am not alone in this - disappointing!

Simple video conferencing for schools

2010-01-02T13:48:00.006Z

The sheer simplicity of the Fonomo home page indicates from the outset just how easy this free service is to use.

Selecting Private chat takes you to another simple page.

The code is the session ID which your friend will enter when they arrive at the home page. The conference has now started, and both parties see the screen below.

Alternatively, the person being invited to the conference may be sent a URL to paste into his browser, to take them straight to the page shown above.

Of course, both parties will need a camcorder pointing at them, and an appropriate microphone, loudspeakers or headset. Fonomo will sell you a webcam, if needed, but cheap USB webcams and microphones are easily sourced elsewhere on the Internet, and it pays to look around.

The other option in Fonomo is the public webcam such as users may want to set up to display on their website or blog, and this is just as straightforward to set up. Again, a URL and session ID are both provided, if the webcam is to have just a single client. Alternatively, HTML code is also available, to be embedded in a blog or other web page for the world to see.

With technology as simple as this, video conferencing can be enjoyed by the youngest of school children. Fonomo is a must for schools - speaking and listening in English, speaking a foreign language with someone in another country, interviewing people for History or Geography, talking about Science experiments with students from another school... The list of applications is long! Give Fonomo a try with your students!

Looking forward to the E2BN Conference

2010-01-01T13:07:00.001Z

Having failed to sit at the PC for long enough to blog since 11th December, I also failed to wish my readers a very happy Christmas. I am not too late, however, to wish you all a very good year in 2010. I look forward to it with mixed emotions. All sorts of opportunities present themselves as I stand looking into the year ahead, but it is also the beginning of the two year period leading up to my early retirement, and that is where I am ambivalent. Having the time to spend with my wife, canal boating, taking my photography more seriously, making music, travelling - all of these sound brilliant. But teaching has been a major part of my life for a long time, and I know of others who have found it difficult to make the break. We shall see!

I have recently received confirmation that I shall be leading two workshops at this year's E2BN conference, and I have decided that this year's theme will be Cloud Computing in Schools. I shall be exploring the advantages and disadvantages in the educational context, ways of making measured inroads into implementing this into schools, and some of the latest Web 2.0 software which may be used to give a taster of, maybe even a way in to, cloud computing.

As I have reported over past years, the E2BN Conference is always an excellent event. I wonder if I meet any of you there!

Again, a very happy New Year to you all!

Now, I know that you're all busy people...

2009-12-11T17:00:00.000Z

...but please would you give me ten minutes of your time, adding to my wiki? I've had one interesting contribution so far! I do want this to be a collaborative project, drawing upon the thoughts, experiences and expertise of the large number of teachers whom I know to be reading this blog regularly. Only between us can we create a definitive description of what 21st century ICT/EdTech should be. Please - make your contribution now!

GoT Wiki - your contributions needed!

2009-12-05T15:19:00.005Z

It seems to be a very common experience amongst teachers of ICT ("Technology" or "EdTech" to some) that their head teachers and principals have little or no idea what ICT really is. Because of this lack of understanding, these teachers are not supported in their drive to implement thoroughgoing ICT in their school.

I have created a wiki which is an attempt to harness the experience, the creativity and innovativeness of ICT educators across the world to create a document which will explain in detail what ICT should be in the 21st century classroom. Ideally, in a world unshackled by the likes of the National Curriculum of the UK, what are the skills, concepts and knowledge which experts see as being the essential ingredients of modern, forward-looking ICT? The completed document would then be edited into a paper and made available to the online community of ICT Teachers for their use in educating their managers and colleagues.

Visit the wiki here. I invite you all to add your thoughts to these pages. If necessary, add new subpages for new topics. Add text to existing pages. Please avoid the temptation to edit the work of others. And pass the message around amongst your ICT teacher friends and colleagues! Please take this opportunity to build a truly influential document!

>>>>The wiki is now closed (16th April 2010)<<<<

Another poster

2009-12-01T17:53:00.000Z

Did this one years ago. Forgot it. Found it today on a little-used laptop!

Help yourselves if you can use it.

The Internet to be used in exams

2009-12-01T16:56:00.001Z

Late in 2006, it was reported that the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority was to put an end to GCSE coursework because of concerns about students copying from the Internet. One has to ask, however, if this is the best solution to the problem.

The report came in a week when I heard a conference speaker tell how she had complained to her daughter's Geography teacher because she had set homework to learn the capitals of a number of countries. The mother's point was that such a task was pointless. If her daughter ever needed to know such information, she would simply Google it. Rote learning like that is out of place in modern education.

Both of these stories shouted loudly to me that our education system was still lamentably behind the times when it comes to its thinking about the place of ICT in the learning processes. In 2009, we still have exams where students are expected to remember lots of information for which they will have little use after the exam is over. Meanwhile, when they are found to be turning to the Internet for help in coursework, they are roundly castigated.

I am not condoning plagiarism. It seems clear to me, though, that we have here a fantastic opportunity to ensure that our students are fully aware that this practice is unethical, and to teach them properly how to research on the Internet, how to acknowledge and reference sources, how to evaluate and use the information they find, and how to explain things in their own words. Are not all of these very valuable skills? Could these skills not be part of what is assessed, alongside the subject-specific content?

If we are to set our students on the path of life-long learning, then it is surely time that we tool them with the very skills which will empower them along that path, skills which will be invaluable in future employment and in their everyday lives outside of work. In their readiness to turn to the Internet, I think perhaps our young people are trying to tell us something about the way they'd like to do things! Yes, some of them would like to cheat. What's new? Cheating has always been a problem. Let's be creative. Let's turn the situation to an educational advantage.

Today's BBC news website bears the headline, "Danish pupils use web in exam". At last, an education authority has stuck its neck out on a controversial issue, had faith in its perception of the need for change, and grasped the future. I first wrote the paragraphs above in 2007-8 (now edited for 2009) for the blog of the BETT exhibition, as I reflected on how the ICT curriculum in the UK should be teaching our students how to use the available technologies in a responsible manner which would make possible the enlightened approach now being taken in Denmark. How long will it be before the UK, once world-leaders in education, will follow their example?

I really shouldn't blog when I'm so tired!

2009-11-29T09:26:00.004Z

My apologies to AudioPal, and my thanks to Allanah King for pointing out my stupid error. As anyone can see, if they look (which I obviously didn't!) there are several ways of recording your voice, and the vocalizing of text is only one of the available options.

Speech can be recorded by phone - a number is supplied. Your voice can, very simply, be recorded by microphone direct online, or an audio file can be uploaded from your computer. A link is emailed to you which points to the location where the code can be found to embed into your blog or website - the result is the neat little player you see in the post below. These four simple options make it an excellent tool for use in the classroom. Full marks to AudioPal after all!

AudioPal Widget

2009-11-28T20:14:00.003Z

AudioPal! Useful in blogs? Can't see why you'd use this instead of your voice really! Any thoughts?

Exploratree

2009-11-24T20:56:00.003Z

This superb educational resource, for use both by teachers and students, comes from the prolific FutureLab. Cleverly named, Exploratree is a collection of twenty-five templates to aid thinking in a variety of contexts. They say of them,

"Thinking Guides are tools or frameworks for thinking through an issue and considering different aspects or perspectives. They can help to develop thinking skills."

Ten of these guides are also available in Welsh.

Selecting any of these guides takes the user to an edit page, where the template may be customised to suit the user's particular application and audience. The guide can be created so that it may be revealed stage by stage when viewed online - a really useful facility for use with students in particular. The completed guide can then be printed for use hard-copy, saved and shared for collaborative work across the Internet, or emailed from within the application. Users are encourages to create their own thinking guides, using a prepared blank template, and to share those with other users.

How many schools, colleges and universities do not need this?

New tools from Google

2009-11-18T18:42:00.005Z

At least, they're new to me! And they are both about new ways of looking at information - just right for ICT lessons, but very useful in other subjects, too.

Both are from Google Labs, and have that "not quite finished" feel about them, therefore, but both are perfectly usable. The first is Google Squared. This is perfect for finding information about sets of things - Kings and Queens of England, Currencies of Europe, British Musicians. Simply enter your search term, and you are returned a table with basic information about dozens, hundreds of members of your set. For example, I look for Dinosaurs, and I get dozens of records thus...

The column titles are set for me. I can delete any field I don't need. However, the last column is always headed "Add columns", and has a drop-down menu which suggests other fields you might want. Alternatively, you can suggest your own.

Clicking inside any cell returns further information. A powerful tool at the start of any research. Cleverly, Google Squared learns by example, too. I wanted information on "Countries of Africa", but it could give me none. Instead, it asked for five examples of countries of Africa, and gave me a full table after I had supplied the examples. Very neat!

Secondly comes Image Swirl.

"Google Image Swirl organizes image search results based on their visual and semantic similarities and presents them in an intuitive exploratory interface."

And if you're not sure what that means, you'll really have to try it! Entering your search term returns a table like this...

Clicking one of the images in that table opens up a spider diagram of that image with numerous associated images, thus...

And double-clicking any image takes you to a full-sized version which is downloadable. It does not replace Google Images, but rather supplements it with a new way of looking for images. Not for everyone, not for every image search, but a useful tool to offer to learners and teachers.

Really fast online dictionary

2009-11-17T22:42:00.001Z

Very briefly - NinjaWords! A shortcut to this website on every student's desktop would be a great blessing in this low-literacy age. It is very fast, brief yet comprehensive, and accurate - I've tested it with a large number of commonly-misused words, and it gets them right (see "enormity" below).

Teachers of all subjects - be aware of this really useful little tool!

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

2009-11-16T11:10:00.004Z

Compiled by Jane Hart of the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies from a survey of 278 learning professionals from around the world, the "Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009" list has just been released. Unsurprisingly, Twitter is now considered the Top Tool. YouTube has risen fifteen places from last year, to come in third. Delicious and Google Reader both moved down one place, Powerpoint and Moodle moved down 5 places (Moodle down??) , Firefox (the winner in 2007), Skype and Facebook all went down 7 places, Word is down 14 places (only 14??) and Bloglines down 56 places. See the whole survey results here, courtesy of C4LPT.

How should we motivate students?

2009-11-14T12:49:00.006Z

In this exciting video from the fabulous TED Talks, career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. In fact, they are probably counter-productive.

I work in an Academy which has a very active Credits system, in which students may earn credits as a reward for a wide range of achievements. These credits are exchangeable for all sorts of things, ranging from the small - golf balls, tickets for the cinema - to the very large - a home gym, a computer. At the end of the first year of the scheme, we were surprised that the takeup of these prizes was no higher than it was. Could Dan Pink be explaining that in this talk? Have schools got motivation wrong, just as businesses have? The inescapable result of the experiments, carried out many times over four decades, is actually very hard to believe. It just goes against the grain of gut feeling, and right against business and educational practice with regard to motivation! What a challenge!

Online screen capture

2009-11-13T17:59:00.000Z

There are a number of free, easy-to-use screen capture tools available, both for taking stills (SRip32, for example) and for capturing on-screen activity (Jing is great for both). But I have been impressed recently by Screenr, an online, Web 2.0 option. With Screenr, it's simply a matter of placing a frame over the bit of screen you want to record, resizing it to suit, then pressing a record button. When you've finished, the resulting file can be embedded in your blog - like this!

The so-called screencast is saved onto the Screenr server for the world to see, and a URL is provided to link users to it, as is the embed code for inserting it direct into your blogs or websites. Of course, a voice-over would normally be recorded along with the video - Grumpy Old Teacher has lost his voice at the moment! Tweeters can simply Tweet their screencasts at the press of a button, as I did just an hour ago.

Educationally useful? Yes, I think so, and increasingly so as teachers start to move away from the idea that our students' work must necessarily be created with pen on paper. As the new literacy starts to spread through our educational establishments, surely applications like Screenr will become commonplace. But, dear reader, I will retire from the profession in two years' time - will that change have started by then, I wonder!

Teaching copyright

2009-11-12T17:26:00.003Z

I find it really difficult getting through to students on the subject of copyright. It has become totally normal for them to help themselves to anything they fancy on the Internet. Indeed, the Internet positively encourages it, doesn't it, by making so much material easily downloadable, and so many people today seem to have the attitude that, if I can do it, I may do it.

But it is our job as teachers to educate our students in the skills of digital citizenship, and copyright is a topic we may not shirk.

Enter Teaching Copyright.

"In five distinct lessons, students are challenged to:
Reflect on what they already know about copyright law.
See the connection between the history of innovation and the history of copyright law.
Learn about fair use, free speech, and the public domain and how those concepts relate to using materials created by others.
Experience various stakeholders' interests and master the principles of fair use through a mock trial.
Teaching Copyright will require your students to think about their role in the online world and provide them with the legal framework they need to make informed choices about their online behavior."

This excellent website is thorough and rigorous in its dealings with this whole issue. The five ready-made 60 minute lessons come backed with a raft of resources which leave the classroom teacher wanting for nothing.

The enormous list of reading material for the teacher is, alone, good reason for visiting the site. Here's a site which should be on the compulsory reading list of every teacher!

Bigging up students' pictures

2009-11-11T18:08:00.003Z

When a student has done a piece of work really well, then it deserves to be celebrated, shown off, bigged up. I have previously mentioned The Rasterbator, which creates from an uploaded picture dozens of pdf files, to be printed out and mounted together on a wall, producing a huge, half-toned poster.

(NOT from my bedroom wall!)

Now I find BlockPosters, a website which does the same job, but producing full colour output instead of the half-tone effect.

You supply the student's picture, then increase the number of pages to be used across the width of the final poster until you reach the desired size. Download the pdf files, print them out in colour, and mount them for the rest of the school to see.

What an excellent way to fill boring spaces on walls around the school!

But enough of that, what about the ICT?

2009-11-10T18:51:00.012Z

I've come across a large number of web sites recently which host and deliver videos for education, and all of them have their use. Teachers should be aware of the wealth of video resources available beyond YouTube - wonderful though that is! dotSub is another such resource, but this one is unusual in that it offers the facility for those who upload their videos to create subtitles in any language.

"On dotSUB you can view, upload, transcribe, and translate any video into and from any language."

I still have to investigate this in any real depth, but the immediately obvious application of this tool is to make tutorial videos accessible to EFL students (English as a Foreign Language), and those with hearing difficulties. But then, of course, that can be extended to absolutely any video used in the classroom, and used as a learning aid in Modern Foreign Languages, and to widen the audience of schools' promotional videos on their website or at Parents' Evenings.

Embedded here is one of a series of ICT videos I shall be using some time soon - not yet subtitled. I feel a project coming on!

Words

2009-11-10T18:25:00.002Z

As an ex-English teacher myself, with a degree in English and a great love for and fascination with the language, I was really pleased to stumble across World Wide Words. I list a sample of its articles here, and recommend it to English teachers, or anyone who just loves words. Wikipedia lists the author, Michael Quinion, as

"a British etymologist and writer. He runs the web site World Wide Words, devoted to linguistics. He graduated from Cambridge University, where he studied physical sciences after which he joined BBC radio as a studio manager."

Technorati Tags: words,michael quinion,english language

A minute for Madeleine McCann

2009-11-03T22:56:00.001Z

I've not had time to blog for some weeks now, but I just have to reproduce below the email I received today from CEOP, and to encourage you all to help them in the search for Madeleine.

Please take a minute of your time for Madeleine McCann and help spread this special message around the world.

A new film has been released by the UK’s police organisation for child protection - the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre - aimed at anyone close to the person who was involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. That person could be a relative, friend, work colleague or neighbour. Whoever they are, they have a secret that could reveal what happened to Madeleine.

In order to reach that person, CEOP are asking for the public’s help to share this message virally, via the internet, so that the message is so widespread it becomes one click away to the person who knows something about Madeleine’s disappearance. The message is then a constant reminder that it is never too late to do the right thing, to stop keeping this secret and pass this vital information to their local police.

You can view the full message which is part of a 60 second film at http://www.ceop.police.uk/. If you are online and part of an online community, you can help. Post the link on your social networking site, email your friends and colleagues and encourage them to share the film, blog and Tweet about the film and link to the website above. Do anything you can to spread this message around the world.

The message is available at http://www.ceop.police.uk/ and is in seven different languages – English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

This initiative is supported by Leicestershire Police, Interpol, Europol and international police agencies as well as specialist charities and NGO’s such as the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Missing Children Europe and the UK charity Parents and Abducted Children Together (PACT).

So, please help. Take a minute for Madeleine and help share this message around the world.

Thank you

Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre
www.ceop.police.uk

MP3 players in class?

2009-10-25T18:44:00.000Z

There seems to have been a lot on the blogosphere recently about schools' problems with students playing music from their various forms of MP3 player, in class. It seems that most schools ban players of all kinds, and with them go mobile phones. As well as being music players, they pose their own problems - kids sending texts - or even phoning - in class, the cameras being used to photograph other students or even teachers in their worst moments, and the sound recorders used for the audio version of that.

A recently published TED Talk, however, has fuelled the arguments of those of us who would like to have our students listening to their music while they do their work. I frequently flout the general school rule in this regard, but I do insist that students simply select a playlist, and then play it. Frequent playing with the device, looking for the next track, is likely to lose them the privilege. Watch the video, and see if you're won over to the idea.

So is it OK to let our students work to their favourite Drum & Bass? There has been a lot of research that suggests that different styles of music, and different numbers of beats per minute, affect us in different ways. Not all music, then, will help students to be productive. And Julian Treasure seems to suggest that birdsong is best! Hmmm, I don't think my students would be too impressed!

Well, Japan now knows how great Win 7 is!

2009-10-23T16:13:00.006Z

SchoolTube

2009-09-30T17:31:00.003Z

You all know YouTube, you might well know TeacherTube, you ought to know TrueTube - now we have SchoolTube!

"SchoolTube provides students and educators a safe, world class, and FREE media sharing website that is nationally endorsed by premier education associations.
SchoolTube is the recognized leader for moderated, internet media sharing for teachers and students. All student created materials on SchoolTube must be approved by registered teachers, follow local school guidelines, and adhere to our high standards."

Unusually for a site like this, YouTube has a games section, but that is the smallest attraction. Partnered by a host of reputable American organizations, this site is very specifically for schools' use. It hosts a number of lesson plans for teaching students the art, science and legal aspects of making films. It has a useful bunch of links to other web resources. But above all, it has a vast collection of videos made for students, often by students.

As such, it is both a resource for the classroom and a showcase for the work of our students.

This has to be worth investigating by any teacher.

Free documentaries

2009-09-21T18:39:00.000Z

Are you looking for a new source of documentaries to use in class? Then you really must take a look at Snagfilms.

Here is a website which hosts thousands of film documentaries on a host of topics, many of which may be useful in our schools. Once the user has selected the country they come from (US, Canada, UK or "International"!) they select the topic in which they have an interest.

"Match Me Now" returns the list of videos found to match their choice. Videos may be "snagged", that is, emailed or added quickly and easily to any of a number of social networking sites and the like, and embedding code is offered so that they can be added to your own website or blog.

Following the "Submit Your Film" button reveals the criteria for submission to Snagfilms.

"Any film meeting the following criteria is suitable for consideration:
It must be non-fiction/documentary.
Your film must have been accepted by major local, regional, and/or national film festival.
It must not include hate speech, excessive violence, slanderous or libelous claims, or any other actionable offenses.
YOU MUST HAVE CLEARED ALL RIGHTS (INCLUDING MUSIC WITH CORRESPONDING CUE SHEETS) NECESSARY FOR THE DIGITAL EXHIBITION OF THE FILM IN THE US."

This is a superb resource for schools. Teachers - go and look!

Online music creation

2009-09-18T17:16:00.001Z

I have already sung the praises of the fantastic software offered by Aviary, and listed the range of products they were planning to release. Several of these are available now, and really should be considered by teachers for use with their classes.

But the one I am finding the most amazing at the moment is their latest - the Audio Editor, Myna. My only complaint is the application of the description "Audio Editor", for this is surely not what it is! Such a term applies surely to the like of Audacity? What Myna is, is a Sequencer, like Garageband, Acid, Cubase and the like.

It features ten audio tracks into which can be imported mp3 files from your hard disc or from the huge library provided. Audio can also be recorded direct onto a track. A comprehensive list of file formats is supported.

Using the audio clips provided or imported, music of some complexity can be created, effects added and a final mixdown applied. The interface is simple and intuitive, and should be accessible to students of a wide range of age and ability.

Registered users have the advantage - commonplace in Web 2.0 applications - of uploading their work for others to hear, and there is already quite an impressive collection of work there.

This software is simply amazing, and school ICT and Music departments ought to be very excited about it. Congratulations, Aviary!

Did you know - just last year!

2009-09-15T18:52:00.004Z

This is last year's version of the video!

Did You Know?

2009-09-15T18:05:00.004Z

After a long pause in blogging (death of Mum, start of Academy), I just had to get on quickly to post this video. Will schools care?

Web 2.0 in education

2009-08-20T10:44:00.005Z

15th May 2009 seems rather late for an influential body like Becta to be coming out with this video, but, now it's here, it should be useful ammunition for teachers of ICT to use against the resistance which is fairly typical in our schools. Nice one, Becta!

Traffic Lights

2009-08-20T08:03:00.002Z

My apologies! I pointed you yesterday to a previous post which has a Box from which you were supposed to be able to download the Traffic Lights program. It was not working! I have rectified that now, but include it here as well, for convenience. My thanks go to Siaran for bringing this to my attention.

Videos for schools

2009-08-18T08:20:00.001Z

I have previously mentioned that video gems are to be found on Teacher Tube and TrueTube for use in the classroom, but I have more recently found other sources of videos to add to these resources, and now's the time to be looking at them, in preparation for the coming school year.

Nibipedia is an American site with a huge number of videos for schools categorized by subject - unfortunately none for ICT! Most, possibly all of these, are to be found on You Tube or TED, but the site pulls them together for us in a convenient way.

Again from the States, HowStuffWorks - a favourite site of mine - has a Video Centre with a host of videos covering most of the curriculum.

From the UK now, there is the site Teacher Training Videos, which hosts hundreds of tutorial videos on ICT related topics as well as for English Language teachers.

Open Thinking has put together a collection of over ninety videos for Technology and Media Literacy.

And finally, the superb Teach ICT website has its own selection of tutorial videos for students.

There is no excuse not to have the right video to illustrate a lesson with these resources so easily available!

Technorati Tags: videos,education,school,tutorial,teacher tube,TrueTube,Nibipedia,HowStuffWorks,Open Thinking,Teach ICT

Brain Games

2009-08-15T10:08:00.004Z

I think the search which I've been on for the past months may finally have come to an end. Many thanks to @NYC_YVR and to FitBrains themselves for pointing me to FitBrains website. This claims to give access to over 32 million brain games (!), divided into a number of useful categories. The free level would be excellent for school use, but there is a paid option which offers a host of benefits. Along with the other websites suggested by two or three other readers, to whom go my thanks, FitBrains will answer the needs of all of the teaching staff!

Problems with Box?

2009-08-15T07:14:00.005Z

Talking of Box, did any of you have problems using the Box widget for downloading my posters at the bottom of this post? If you did, would you please comment here, and let me know? Of the hundreds of people who downloaded them, the vast majority did so by clicking the individual images in the post. The Box download works for me. Were there problems? Please let me know.

File storage for students and teachers

2009-08-15T06:20:00.005Z

As our students start to use more and more computer files of ever-increasing size, this puts an huge demand upon the school to provide storage for those files, and this poses a huge problem to many schools. New servers and bigger hard discs cost money, and we all know that schools don't necessarily have lots of that. The standard response to the problem is to forbid the storage of large file types - video, images and audio being the obvious targets. Alternatively, if every student has a strictly limited space on the school network, then they often have to delete their large file types in order to save the smaller word-processor files and the like.

Neither of these approaches is ideal however, but Internet file storage seems to be a very attractive solution, and there are numerous such services freely available. I am a regular user of Box, and it's supplied all of my needs for some time now. However, I am very impressed by the facilities offered by drop.io, and I have their demo video embedded here.

A word of warning, though! In the UK at least, it seems to be usual for Local Education Authorities to have access to file storage sites blocked. They are apparently concerned that wayward students might use such sites as the means for bringing undesirable material into school from outside - porn being the most-cited example. This is an issue that teachers are going to have to deal with and argue against. You might want to point out the obvious - that if students wanted to do such a thing, they could use their USB memstick, MP3 player or mobile phone!

What will young people pay for online?

2009-08-14T11:10:00.006Z

Here is an interesting conference discussion about young people's attitude to using the internet. What will they pay for? How much will they pay? The audience, I think, is largely people from industry wishing to make money from the internet.

How much do these young people's attitudes match those of our students? Is this an issue which needs to be addressed in our classrooms?

I couldn't download and edit the video, and the first five minutes are fairly uninteresting, so save yourself some time and start watching around five minutes in! It is fifty minutes long from there on.

Games for your school website or intranet

2009-08-13T20:55:00.003Z

A good collection of games here on Karooba which can be played on the website, or embedded on your school sites. There are four different games to be played, plus the option for custom games, and they can be Tournaments - played against up to eight other people, single user - like the one below, and one-on-one - played against one other person or the computer.

Playing on the website, gamers can play their way onto a leader board, and all players can win points as they play, and cash those in for prizes - from a Karooba t-shirt to a Play Statio 3! Come on, you creative teachers - find a use for this in your class. The kids will love it!

Graphics toys

2009-08-13T16:19:00.001Z

The posters I put on the blog a few weeks ago were all created with Flickr Toys, about which I've enthused before. Recently, I've come across WigFlip's AutoMotivator (clever name - shame it's got nothing to do with cars!) This does much the same as Flickr Toys, except that it puts the user in control of the text colour (although it only offers two styles), and it allows the creator to buy their poster professionally printed at full poster size. However, as can be seen from my screenshot, the original pictures have to be at least 1000 by 1000 pixels large. There is no such restriction in Flickr Toys, although in that case, obviously, the results will be poor if the image is too small, and the software enlarges it beyond its optimum size in order to fit the poster.

While I was (manually) matching the text colour to the dominant colour of my poster here, I remembered a nice little utility to be found at ColorSuckr. This online application finds photos on Flickr which are predominantly the colour typed into the search box. Typing in "yellow", for example, returns these pictures.

Alternatively, you can give ColorSuckr the URL of a picture on the web, and it will match its colours with photos on Flickr. This is going to be useful for those wanting to use a colour theme in any kind of presentation. I have to confess that I am not over-impressed by the accuracy of some of the matches, but a little patience pays off!

Rather better in this respect is the Flickr Color Selectr (I'm getting just a little annoyed by the persistence of this quirkish spelling convention for websites!) which returns photos from Flickr which match the colour selected by the user from a familiar palette.

The colour matching is better, as seen here...

...where the background and the photos match the selection on the palette shown above.

Little utilities like these should be shown to all of our students, to become part of their ICT toolbag for all of their work. They will not discover them for themselves!

Technorati Tags: Flickr,Flickr Toys,Flickr Color Selectr,ColorSuckr

Google Wave - for schools?

2009-08-12T16:18:00.003Z

With Wave now on the horizon, I believe we teachers should be fully aware of what it is, and what it can do to transform what aspects of teaching and learning in our schools. Too often, schools are on the blunt edge when it comes to the takeup of new technologies. Wave, it seems, could be truly disruptive of the status quo. We have to be ready to harness its powers, and to empower our students and colleagues in its use.

This video is Google's own introduction. It's one hour and twenty minutes long, but really needs to be seen!

Google for Educators

2009-08-12T06:20:00.006Z

Insane busy-ness, a week away on holiday and subsequent inexcusable indolence have stopped me blogging for the past weeks, but I just have to write briefly about a recent discovery of mine - Google for Educators. I haven't got around to investigating much yet, but had to give you all the heads-up about the "Google Web Search - Classroom Lessons and Resources". Here are three lessons by the masters of the search engine on how to use that engine effectively, with knowledge and understanding. Each lesson comes in three levels of student ability, and all are supported with editable online presentations using Google Docs.

I have often thought that teachers expect students to know how to search the web from birth, and it is too often not a taught skill. In reality, many of our kids don't have a clue - but that is undoubtedly true of many of our teachers! Here is a set of resources which can be used in the classroom and in teacher training. Well worth the look.

Musical memory game

2009-07-30T08:40:00.001Z

Some weeks ago, I tweeted a request for links to brain games, but got little back in response, so I was really chuffed when I came across Soundory yesterday.

Soundory is on a really cool website called GamesForTheBrain, and is played like the old card game, Pelmanism. Each of the twenty "cards" on the screen is a short piece of music. Each piece appears twice on the deck. The aim of the game is to identify identical pairs of music, remembering where the first of each pair is when the second is discovered. This clearly has its use in Music lessons, perhaps as a starter activity, but I see no reason why it shouldn't be used similarly in any lesson, as a brain exercise which is fun and engaging. I look forward to trying it in September!

Technorati Tags: brain game,Soundory,gamesforthebrain.com,pelmanism

Creative fun for kids!

2009-07-29T17:54:00.001Z

I don't think we can give our students too many opportunities to explore creativity. Our current education system does not allow nearly enough - watch again that brilliant talk by Sir Ken Robinson! I am grateful to Russel Tarr for tweeting about Bomomo today. He asked, "What is it?". I answered that our students will discover what it is if we simply put it in front of them and let them play with it. I can't really begin to describe it adequately.

It is an online drawing application. It has a number of balls moving in a cluster about the screen. These balls act like pens, applying random colours to the page in response to mouse buttons. Their movement is decided by a selection from 20 buttons at the bottom of the screen, and by the movement of the mouse over the page. Each button governs a particular behaviour of the balls. The results are wonderful!

Easy to use, never-ending in its fascination - Sir Ken would love this! I do, my students certainly will!

Technorati Tags: bomomo,art,software,drawing,creativity