July 2007 - Posts
"PhotoFiltre is a free image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve."
http://photofiltre.free.fr/
Click here to download
There are tutorials on the following page:
http://frontpagesolutions.com/photofiltre/
A fundamental change in the way in which pupils access software now appears to be happening as more and more software is being made available through web browsers on the internet.
For some time Google, the internet search engine, have been offering Google Docs – an online word processor and spreadsheet that enables users to produce simple documents and spreadsheets without the need for any software to be installed on their computer apart from a web browser. Now Google has announced their presentation graphics system that will, it is hoped, enable presentations to be created as well, holds out the interesting possibility of a software free school.
Click here to read the Google announcement
What do you think?
James Barrett, creator of all the interactive games on the Kent NGfL website, has developed a very handy tool that automatically senses how calm or noisy a room is.
http://www.ictgames.com/calmCounter.html
James would love feedback so that he can make the right adjustments to make Calm Counter even better.
You can either leave a comment below or contact him directly.
James has been creating educational games for many years long before he joined KCC. We are very fortunate to have someone with his talents on the Primary ICT team. The games James creates during working hours are all on the Kent NGfL website. These games have the Kent logo on them and belong to KCC.
James runs the ICTgames.com website in his own time and at his own expense. The games on ICTgames.com are not created during KCC work time, neither are they or the website funded by KCC. James creates the games and runs the website as a hobby.
Visit our main website at www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/
SMART have released a lesson activity toolkit to aid teachers in preparing notebooks. This is only in beta format at the moment, so expect one or two glitches. However, it is worth downloading (for free) and trying out all the different interactive tools.
"Toolkit helps you create engaging and interactive content like word games, quizzes and sorting tables, and offers you Adobe Flash tools like hide-and-reveal and drag-and-drop. "
http://education.smarttech.com/
Visit our main website at www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/
NGfL CYMRU have created a fantastic new resource called Literacy Builder with many interactive activities to support all areas of the curriculum from Eary Years to Year 6.
Many of the activities are exe files. Save the files to your computer and then click on the files to run them.
Don't forget to check out the other great teaching resources they have created too. They are ideal for use on any whiteboard.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/
Ictopus (ICT online primary user support) is a support service for primary education. Anyone can sign up for the service (free of charge) to receive a weekly six page printable magazine and a set of activity suggestions. There will also be a regular newsletter or e-bulletin. These resources (and more) will be archived on the ictopus website www.ictopus.org.uk where there will also be access to classroom activities, software and a variety of other resources and projects.
Each edition of the weekly magazine, 'Sharing Good Practice', will have 6 pages and will comprise case-study articles, top tips for using ICT effectively in primary education, website recommendations and a variety of teaching plans and other resources. It will be available as a download in a printable format that could be displayed on a staff notice board or coffee table, slotted into individual staff pigeonholes and stored in a ring binder for future reference. It is proposed to have a coherent theme for each edition and the overall focus is to be on disseminating good practice.
The weekly activity ideas, 'Lessons2go', are a development of the Direct2U activities. These lessons aim to provide ideas for the use of ICT across the primary key stages and curriculum. The pick of the original lessons will be updated, including the checking of web links and inclusion of any new developments. A regularly updated index will be available so that lessons can be found for different key stages, subjects or year groups. This should assist key stage coordinators, ICT coordinators and class teachers. Although aimed primarily at the school user it is hoped that the resources will also benefit advisers, teacher training tutors/mentors and parents.
In addition there will be an e-bulletin which will keep colleagues up-to-date with all things ICT on a very regular basis, including links to a 'website of the moment' as new and exciting things come to light.
Users will be able to sign up for each service individually. Resources will be despatched to you as they are issued and will also be archived on the website.
Ictopus is run by a group of primary teachers, university lecturers and consultants who wish to support colleagues working in the field of primary education. It aims to be flexible and adaptive to your needs and to provide a forum for dissemination of the excellent practice currently found in many schools.
The service launches in September 2007 but you can sign up for it right now by visiting the website www.ictopus.org.uk.
Random Name Picker is a new interactive resource on ClassroomTool.net. Copy and paste your class list into the yellow box, starting on a new line for each name. Then cgoose from either Typewrite or Fruit Machine for names to be randomly chosen.
ClassroomTool.net is a FREE website allowing teachers and students to create interactive Flash diagrams for learning and revising material.
The new programme of study for ICT at KS3 and KS4 was released on 12 July. Year 6 teachers may find the KS3 programme of study useful when planning transition links.
You can download the pdf files from the following links:
KS3 (http://www.qca.org.uk/)
KS4 ( http://www.qca.org.uk)
Hot Potatoes is an online “lesson construction” software suite that allows you to create Web-based interactive activities. It includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web.
Tim VanSlyke, an ESL teacher, has created an easy to use guide to using the software.
http://www.tim3c.com/
(Hot Potaoes is a suggested resources in the New Framework for Literacy Year 5 Unit 1)
Interactive whiteboard resources to spport and enhance the SEAL whole-class teaching materials are available from the following websites (both are resources for Smartboard):
Hertfordshire Grid for Learning
Luton Grid for Learning (For other SEAL resources created by Luton click here)
All the primary and secondary SEAL resources can be downloaded from the new DfES Behaviour & Attendance pilot website: www.bandapilot.org.uk.
If pupils are doing to research on a person or any topic that has chronological elements, such as a historical event, an arts movement, a biography, an author, etc, add view:timeline as an additional search term in google:
eg Type in ' victorians view:timeline ' in the search box
For peoople type the name and then add view:timeline
thomas edison inventions view:timeline
As will all websites, please check the links for suitability on any internet page your pupils will be visiting.
It is always a pleasure to come across websites where teachers are freely sharing their resources.
Click here to visit a website with photographs of classroom displays
Flickr is a place on the internet where many people are uploading and storing their photographs. Some people very kindly allow their photographs to be used using the Creative Commons Licence. This means that these photographs can be used in the classroom with out breaking any copyright.
John Pearce, a teacher in Australia, has created a video on Teacher Tube showing how to search photographs on Flickr that are free to use in the classroom.
John also writes an interesting blog which you may like to visit too
http://johnp.wordpress.com/
This is a fun site "where children (and adults) can create their own comic strips. Choose from 10 fun characters with different moods -- happy, sad, angry, worried – and write words and thought balloons to make characters talk and think. There also are story ideas and prompts to help users create graphic stories.
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
Little Bear & Sophie Bear are travelling teddies who live with Mrs Keen, an Essex based Early Years teacher. Children can read a diary of the bears exciting adventures. Adults will find teaching resources, recommended books for early years children and days out for early years ideas.
http://www.sophiebear.co.uk/