Kent ICT Blog

Do you want to improve your spelling?

kent-teachers — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:33:00 GMT

The Times and Microsoft have teamed up to form a website called Spelling Bee. www.timesspellingbee.co.uk There is a section called Mini Bees that is suitable for primary aged children to use. There are a range of activities and games to play to help children...(read more)

Games Link Not Working

kent-teachers — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:30:00 GMT

We're having a bit of trouble with the games tab on the top right-hand-side of the Kent ICT site. If you find that it is not working please follow this link instead: http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/content/games/index.htm I am sorry for any...(read more)

Crazy Talk offer for UK Schools

kent-teachers — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Take a digital image and make it talk? Easier than you might think. CrazyTalk 6 is an easy and powerful tool for generating talking characters from an image or photo and facial animation for video, websites and widget. Many schools are using to bring...(read more)

Kent School ICT Mark Success

kent-teachers — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:54:00 GMT

Congratulations to St.Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Northfleet Gravesend for achieving the ICT Mark. Well done to all the staff for their efforts and especially the ICT Leader for collating all the evidence together....(read more)

“Kent Bird Watch 2010 Ask an Expert Day”

kent-teachers — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:03:00 GMT

“Kent Bird Watch 2010 Ask an Expert Day” Thursday 1st April 2010 Dear Colleague No, this is not a hoax! Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils will have the opportunity on Thursday 1st April 2010 to ask questions and interview RSPB Education Officers from across the...(read more)

Owl nestbox game

kent-teachers — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:31:00 GMT

It has been available for years, but this online, or downloadable Flash activity, originally from MAPE helps you think of a good place to site an owl nestbox you may need to enable ActiveX in internet explorer to make it work....(read more)

Feeding Birds in Winter FlashMeeting Vidcast

kent-teachers — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:37:00 GMT

To help pupils feed birds during the winter click on the link below to view the Vidcast made by David James (RSPB Education Officer.) Created using the FlashMeeting Memo Board it is full of good ideas about what to feed birds at this time of year. Click...(read more)

Kent Bird Watch February 2010 Survey

kent-teachers — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:40:00 GMT

****** Starting Now! - Are you taking part? ******* 35 Kent schools took part in the January 2010. The February 2010 Kent Bird Watch Survey will be taking place from Monday 22nd - Sunday 28th February . To take part in the survey pupils will need 1 hour...(read more)

Kent Bird Watch March 2010 Project Twilight Meetings

kent-teachers — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:25:00 GMT

Get the most out of this exciting project for your school! January 2010 - Over 70 primary schools in Kent have purchased a Nestcam! Pupils at Ward Stewart School, USA preparing different bird foods Following the recent very successful project launch meetings...(read more)

Free posters and labels for displays

kent-teachers — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:58:00 GMT

Available at www.schoolslinks.co.uk/resources_displays.htm...(read more)

New Research Section

kent-teachers — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:13:00 GMT

There is a now a Research section added to the Games pages. There are three 'safe search' resources for finding information about animal life, rivers and dinosaurs. These resources are aimed at supporting the sometimes tricky Research and e-Awareness...(read more)

The safe use of new technologies

kent-teachers — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:25:00 GMT

This report is based on evidence from a small-scale survey carried out between April and July 2009 in 35 maintained schools in England. It evaluates the extent to which the schools taught pupils to adopt safe and responsible practices in using new technologies...(read more)

National Schools Quiz: 12th March

kent-teachers — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:38:00 GMT

Schools entering the Next Generation Learning National Schools Quiz , which will take place on Friday 12 th March, could win up to £3,000 worth of ICT equipment or training for their school, plus there are fantastic spot prizes for successful individuals...(read more)

21st Century Teacher - Are you ready to meet the challenge?

kent-teachers — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:29:00 GMT

Your students are already using technology as part of their daily life and increasingly expect to use it for learning in school. But what does this mean for you as a teacher? As a 21st century teacher you are a learner yourself – adapting your previous...(read more)

Caught In The Web

kent-teachers — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:48:00 GMT

There is a Newsround special tonight narrated by David Tennant entitled Caught In The Web. The 20 minute episode tackles the dangers of meeing someone you have first met online. It is being aired tonight Tuesday 9th February at 16:55 and repeated at 18...(read more)

Home Access Programme

kent-teachers — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:53:00 GMT

Home Access is a government drive which will help low-income families to get access to a computer and the internet to get online at home. Families who are on a low income in receipt of certain benefits could qualify for a grant to buy a computer and/or...(read more)

Free Online Reporting Briefings for Primary and Special Schools: 26 February 2010 – London Hilton Metropole

kent-teachers — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:10:00 GMT

By popular demand, Becta are re-running the very successful primary online reporting event held last year in Birmingham. Hear from fellow primary and special school leaders about how they are exploiting ICT to improve parental engagement. Key national...(read more)

Thinkuknow e-safety resources

kent-teachers — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:30:00 GMT

The new e-safety resources created by CEOP are now available to download (with the exception of 2 downloads). Lee and Kim's Magical Adventures are aimed at pupils aged 4-7. The pack contains an animated cartoon, song, set of lesson plans and resources...(read more)

I-Board resources now free

kent-teachers — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:47:00 GMT

The I-Board interactive whiteboard resources will now be free to all. You can use the full i-board collection for free now, at http://www.tes.iboard.co.uk . I-board resources can also be found on TES Connect by searching or browsing the TES Resources...(read more)

Sebastian's Waddle

kent-teachers — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:07:00 GMT

I've just heard that Sebastian has been receiving quite a few emails recently. Lots of people writing about the changing seasons. Why not try Sebastian's Waddle , it's a good introduction for talking about changes in the Spring and also encouraging...(read more)

Chinese New Year 14th Feb 2010

kent-teachers — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:45:00 GMT

Chinese New Year is fast approaching, 14th February, (the first weekend of the holiday). The Kent ICT Chinese New Year pages have been updated for 2010. The Hong Bow is now available in a low ink use version . The old red background version is still available...(read more)

A Computer Per Student Leads to Higher Performance

kent-teachers — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:27:00 GMT

Students equipped with their own laptop demonstrate higher achievement and increased engagement, according to the findings of studies published in the Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment. All of the studies found that students in the 1:1 settings...(read more)

Visualisers

kent-teachers — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:34:00 GMT

Visualisers have been around for quite sometime now, but with the recent drop in price, many schools and Partnerships are now buying them to compliment the use of interactive whiteboards. A visualiser, at its simplest, is a video camera mounted on a stand...(read more)

Teachers take over BETT

kent-teachers — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:32:00 GMT

For those of you who able to attend Bett this year you may have seen exciting things happening. This years Bett was less about how many freebies one could stuff in a bag and more about how many good ideas one could gleam to use in class on Monday morning...(read more)

New Elmo Software

kent-teachers — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:38:00 GMT

Having been to BETT and seen the new Elmo L-1ex Visualiser, with a remote control feature, I discovered that new software has been released for capturing and editing pictures and video. It also allows time-lapse photography. The download is free (27Mb...(read more)

365 Facts of the Day Calendar

kent-teachers — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:05:00 GMT

The new Facts of the Day calendar is like an advent calendar,with an educational twist for each day of the year! Each date on this pictorial calendar contains a short article about a special event, famous person or interesting fact related to the day...(read more)

Healthy Lunchbox

kent-teachers — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:40:00 GMT

Here's a useful BBC News article about healthy lunch boxes. Includes images and a pie chart for anyone running a Healthy Eating topic: (Thanks to Simon Haughton for this one : Twitter: @simonhaughton) James:)...(read more)

RSPB Vidcast January 2010 - Using the FlashMeeting Presenter Board

kent-teachers — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:40:00 GMT

The FlashMeeting Presenter Board enables staff and pupils to use the classroom interactive Whiteboard to display images and record messages during a live web conference. Identifying and classifying common birds by observable features 18th January - 1st...(read more)

Kent Statement re the blocking of Sparklebox

kent-teachers — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:32:00 GMT

The following post is from the Kent e-safety blog It has been bought to Kent County Council's attention that many Local Authorities are blocking a teaching resource website: sparklebox.co.uk. Although this website is popular with schools, CEOP has...(read more)

Publishing Bird Trails and Walks

kent-teachers — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:41:00 GMT

Many schools in the Kent Birdwatch 2010 project will be using "I-Got-U 120" GPS data loggers to create and publish "Bird Trails" on Google maps. To illustrate how effectively this technology can be used to share information click on...(read more)