Kent ICT Blog

Here are two very handy tools for when you need to create a graph quickly:

Ambleside Primary’s Graph  (Don't forget to see the other great tools on the Ambleside website - just click on on the Exit button to go to their site)

NCES’s Create-A-Graph

Mandy

Have you come across  Story Start on Teachers TV ? Each Story Start portrays a dramatic scene that acts as a stimulus for creative writing with each clip ending on a cliffhanger to encourage pupils to explore what happens next. You could use the clips to demonstrate setting and/or character as well story settings. There are seven 3 minute clips in total in the video which can be played online or downloaded.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/13826 
(You need to login to be able to download the video. Registration is free)

Another useful website for creative writing is: http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org/joinin/write/choose.asp 

Photostory is another resource to aid creative writing.

We would be interested to know what you thought of these resources so please leave a comment below and tell us how you used these resources and how beneficial they were to your teaching.

Donna Rogers has been appointed by Kent to advise schools on Learning Platforms. She can be contacted at the usual kent.gov.uk email address (donna.rogers).
Visit Donna's blog to keep up to date with the latest developments across Kent: http://clusterweb.org.uk/cs/community/learning_platforms/default.aspx

Other useful links to finding out about Leatning Platforms: 

Personalised Learning - Learning Platforms: advice and guidance, by Alan Day Senior Policy Officer (Digital Curriculum) May 2006.

Becta's approved supplier list:

Mandy

Becta Self Review Framework - element 8

Within the Primary ICT Team we have been having a lively debate about the ways in which schools can measure the impact of ICT on pupil outcomes including:

• Pupils' year-on-year progress in ICT
• Pupils' learning in other curriculum areas
• Pupils' attitudes and behaviour

If you are already tracking pupil progress in any of these areas we'd love to hear about what you're doing. 

Details of the Kent NGfL tracking system can be found at: http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/ict/assessment/RECORDS.HTML

Heidi Barton

Atomic Learning provide web-based software training through a series of tutorials on a wide variety of applications. They are offering free access to free access to their extensive range of video tutorials on their website for a limited period of time. The trial is valid until 12/2/07

Simply go to www.atomiclearning.co.uk and enter the following username and password at the top of the page:

Username: BETT07
Password:  atomic   

Then click on 'Our Tutorials'

Topics include Blogging, Podcasting, Robolab, Clicker 5, ACTIVprimary2, ACTIVsutdio, Word, Excel and  Powerpoint

Microsoft's free PhotoStory has been around for sometime now. It  enables the user to produce creative and informative presentations using still images as the starting point. As the software is simple to use pupils are motivated and able to produce excellent pieces of work to support their learning right across the curriculum. It is also great fun!
Click here to go to the Microsoft page where you can download PhotoStory

Stretton Handley Primary School, inspired by photographs they saw of winter scenes, used PhotoStory to create winter poems.
Click here to read their poems  (Windows Media Player 10 or above needed)

Staffordshire ICT  have put together a help sheet for pupils  using PhotoStory. It includes an assessment chart at the end.

There are some useful tips too on the following website:
http://www.windowsphotostory.com/

Please let us know how you are using PhotoStory and links to any published work.

We would be interested to know if you are using PhotoStory, so please tell us by leaving a comment below. You may also like to leave a link to presentations your pupils have created.

Mandy

Becta have published an interim report which examines adoption and deployment issues associated with Microsoft's Vista and Office 2007 products. In the report Becta recommends that schools do not upgrade to Windows Vista and Office 2007 immediately, since extra costs will outweigh initial benefits.

To download the report, visit:
schools.becta.org.uk

What type of students do you have?  Do you know any ducks, eagles, bears, zebras, kangaroos, fish, squirrels, or bees?

"Once upon a time the animals had a school.  They had to create curriculum that would satisfy everyone so they chose four subjects…running, climbing, flying and swimming.  All the animals, of course, studied all the subjects."

Click here to watch Animal School 

Today we have the technology which can break down these barriers that children have to learning. We have the tools to make learning much more engaging and relevant to each and every member of our class.  There is much evidence of this happening in schools right across Kent where schools are using ICT creatively in lessons.

One recent good example comes from the Kent Videoconferencing Project where a group of schools used "Flash Meeting" to find out more about the 'Staplehurst Train Disaster'.

Have a look at the Interview with Charles Dickens on the following webpage: http://kmi4schools.e2bn.net/rostra/news.php?r=662 

Mandy

SmartBoard Lessons Podcast (http://pdtogo.com/smart/)  is a blog run by two Canadian Educators. The blog has lots to offer in the way of technology for learning with or without interactive whiteboards.  Recently they have been exploring the use of youtube and new web collaboration tools such as collaborative mind mapping. 

The pdtogo podcasts are quite entertaining and informative.  (You can listen to them by clicking on the play button under each episode on the blog.) Each podcast comes with an associated SMART Notebook file to download, and very often there are other resources for downloading and links to other websites. Listen to the podcast to find out more about the 'Links you may use'.

I see this blog being useful by all teachers, regardless if they have a Smart Board or not. http://pdtogo.com/smart/ 

Enjoy!
Mandy
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/ict/IWB/

BETT 2007 has thousands of educational ICT products and services on display, live demonstrations and a range of exciting show features. What impact will it have on your school?

Please share with us your favourite new products/software or any other information e.g did anyone find a solution to the dataproject and dust problem?

Don't forget to also check out the Winners of the 2007 Bett Awards. If you're thinking about how you will spend your 2007 e-Learning Credits, it's a good place to start!http://www.bettawards.com/

Here's a really  interesting site for use with phonics on the IWB:

www.roythezebra.com/

Each game consists of approx four rounds of activities based on a common sentence level or word level activity, e.g. checking for sense, using full stops and 'ea' words etc.

I especially like how each game is repeated using different word sets, allowing us to get more from the activity and use it again.

James Barrett

Dear All,
I have been working with EIS for nearly a year now making "Starters for Study" based on various Pathe Films.  Some, though not all of my work can be found at http://www.segfl.org.uk/projects/view.php?id=175

Some is also available on ClusterWeb, but we are working on that area of the site currently. The SEGfL site will give you a really good start though.  There are exact pictorial instructions as to how to download the films and pdf pages of ideas as to how to use the films, visits and teaching ideas based on them.

I find that British Pathe is a brilliant resource.  Not only is it historically useful but children can boost their literacy skills writing their version of the stories and even edit the films using Windows Movie Maker or other video editing software.  It also encourages the process of questioning history.  

One film I have just worked on is about the Marden Train Crash of 1969, ( Just put Marden into the search box on http://www.britishpathe.com/ and it is the 3rd film down).  Clicking on the Preview Stills button also gives, above the pictures, a description of the film based on the notes made by the cameraman, here you can read that the film was dated 09/01/1969.  However, the Marden Rail Crash, according to the official accident report "REPORT ON THE COLLISION THAT OCCURRED ON 4TH JANUARY 1969 BETWEEN PADDOCK WOOD AND MARDEN IN THE SOUTHERN REGION BRITISH RAILWAYS. KH.3531" held at the National Railway Museum happened 5 days before.  Why the difference?

British Pathe is a brilliant resource for teachers and children.
Kind Regards
Keith

QuikMaps is a web application that allows users to annotate Google maps by using an editor that supports clicking and dragging. You can draw and attach various labels directly to the mapping space and they'll stick there, and the map itself has the basic zooming and grab-and-pan features of Google Maps.

Suggested activities using Quickmaps:

• label features of the local area
  (Drag the A text label onto the map)
• write about different habits in the local area in the pop up speech bubbles.
  (You need to add a placemark and then click on it for the speech bubble)
• Draw route to school or school visit.
  (Click on draw line at the top of the map and then click on scribble)
• Add photographs to a map of a school visit. Click the link for an example. http://www.quikmaps.com/full/20868

How to add a photograph
There is probably an easier way but this is the way I did it using an image from the school website. (Please note that the image should belong to you e.g on your website. Do not link to images which do not belong to you.)
You need the address of the image. To find the address, right click on the image and select properties. You need to put the address in the speech bubble within the following html tags:
<IMG SRC="http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/townhistory/pics/church.jpg">

Mandy

Why not use a little ICT in your geography lessons to make maps more engaging?  Geo Greetings lets you create greeting messages using buildings or other objects that resemble the alphabet from images found on Google Maps.

Have a look at our example:
http://www.geogreeting.com/view.html?zeXV1xd7+u

Students could type in their names and then click on each building or the speech bubble for a popup of Google map showing a bigger image of their buildings.
http://www.geogreeting.com/

They could also use Google Maps, Windows Local Live (best coverage of UK) or Google Earth to hunt for other 'letter' buildings or 'shape' buildings.

Please let us know what you or your students think of Geo Greetings and if they spot other 'letter' buildings.

Mandy
Other mapping websites:
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/subjects/geography/maps/index.htm

Lego’s “Junkbot” is a cool online activity that explores how legos can be combined into different shapes to accomplish objectives. It’s very addictive! Check it out for yourself!

http://www.lego.com/eng/create/activities/junkbot/Default.asp

Mandy

Hello everyone and welcome back to school!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

We thought we would kick off 2007 highlighting again the amazing  online Literacy tools published by ReadWriteThink.org.  The site offers a collection of tools under the Student Materials Index that support literacy learning. They have even included lesson plans!

Eye on Idioms is a fun way to introduce students to idioms. Students go through a series of exercises, in which they view the literal representations of an idiom and then examine the metaphorical meanings.

Letter Creator  is a fun way to teach or reinforce letter writing. Students learn the parts of a letter and are led through the process or writing a friendly or business letter.

Other online tools are Circle Story Plot Diagram, Comic Creator, Comparison and Contrast Guide, Persuasion Map,Timeline, and Venn Diagram.  The above list just names a few of the wide variety available. Go and visit the site to see the wide range of tools they have available: http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp

Have you found a useful website to support Literacy lessons?