Kent ICT Blog

Good Practice Case Studies

2008-10-06T15:19:00Z

The Primary ICT and Hands on Support Team are looking for examples of projects / activities which have had a positive impact on pupils outcomes. Do you have a case study you would like to share with us? If so please contact Heidi Barton by email at heidi.barton@kent.gov.uk or telephone 01622 203800 ext 292....(read more)

Becta review of ICT CPD

2008-10-06T11:11:00Z

Becta are conducting some research into the views of Headteachers, ICT Subject Leaders and Teachers on ICT CPD. If you would like to share your views and so inform future strategy in this respect you can go to www.e-ictaudit.org/survey...(read more)

Kent Weather Watch 2008-9

2008-10-06T10:41:00Z

Embedding ICT across the curriculum Kent Weather Watch 2008-9 A project for primary and secondary pupils around the UK and the World Following the success of Kent Weather Watch we are pleased to announce that the project will be continued to July 2009. Managed by a Team of county Leading ICT Teachers and Geography AST’s schools participating in the project will have the opportunity over the coming months to: Use ICT to creatively share information about the weather in their local area with schools...(read more)

Weather Watch Photographic competition

2008-10-06T10:10:00Z

Free Entry! ------- WIN A PRIZE -------- Free Entry! Click here to download the flier Introduction | How to participate | How to submit photos | Curriculum links The Weather Watch 2008-9 Digital Photograph competition is open to all pupils aged between 5 and 16 who attend a school in the county of Kent. Between now and Friday 7th November 2008 pupils are encouraged to upload add digital images to the National Education Network Weather Watch Gallery. Copies of the digital images taken by the winners...(read more)

Website of the Week - Spelling City

2008-10-05T19:13:00Z

Spelling City www.spellingcity.com Spellingcity.com is a free spelling tool that can help make the teaching of spelling more exciting. With online spelling games, spelling reviews, and spelling quizzes, pupils can memorise their weekly spelling words while having fun. In the practice test, students click to hear the word and a sentence containing the word. They type in the word and check for correctness. Pupils login with the class information to access that weeks spelling list. They also have the...(read more)

Leading ICT Teacher Conference 2008

2008-10-03T07:48:00Z

By now Leading Teachers, ASTs and Hands on Support Providers will have received invitations to our Leading ICT Teacher Conference on 20th November 2008. We are delighted that Russell Prue will be delivering a keynote presentation entitled: " Transformational Learning – looking at free technology that improves learning ". Russell is an award winning ICT evangelist, author, inventor and entrepreneur. He has been working in learning technology for over 23 years and is one of the most engaging...(read more)

TutPup Maths and English

2008-09-30T14:35:00Z

At the recent Swale ITN, Morag from Tunstall suggested we look at http://www.tutpup.com/ for encouraging pupils to practise and speed up their maths and spellings. A teacher will need to create a free account for their class, and pupils can register with a pseudonym as part of the class. Then they can go online and attempt the challenges, timed, against pupils from all over the world. No personal details are exchanged but success gains awards and entry into league tables. The youngsters at Tunstall...(read more)

Website of the Week - Bring hand drawn animals to life onscreen

2008-09-28T11:26:00Z

www2. shidonni.com This weeks Website of the Week comes via a Tweet from Angela Maiers who recommended Shidonni on Twitter . Shidonni is a fun website where pupils can draw an animal and then click a button to see it come to life! Even better than this, they can also draw items of food to put in the animal's fridge, watch as their animal eats the food and draw habitat for their animal to live in. e-safety warning - entering personal data The site requires free registration and requests an email...(read more)

Using Social Media to share and discuss

2008-09-28T08:31:00Z

Social media are internet-based tools using audio, video, image and text technologies for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with a wide range of people. As an ICT consultant, I use a variety of social media to help me keep up to date with the latetest trends in ICT and to share and discuss new ways of using ICT to enhance teaching and learning. The two most useful social media tools for me are: Twitter ( http://twitter.com/ ) Twitter is a micro-blogging site limiting...(read more)

Becta puts brakes on home access

2008-09-22T12:37:00Z

Becta guidance, to be published this month, states that protected data must be encrypted before it can be removed from a school. “Until new technology or enhancements to your existing ICT infrastructure can be put in place, you are likely to need to make operational changes,” the Becta guidance says. “This may mean that certain types of sensitive data may no longer be accessible away from the school in the short term.” Becta puts breaks on home access - TES 19 September 2008...(read more)

Website of the week Into the Book

2008-09-21T10:50:00Z

Into the Book: Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies reading.ecb.org Into the Book is designed to enhance the teaching and learning of reading comprehension strategies for primary students. The website focuses on eight strategies that proficient readers use: using prior knowledge, making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, evaluating, and synthesizing. You can download posters, songs and worksheets from the Teacher's Area. The videos are ideal to show on the interactive...(read more)

E-safety Conference

2008-09-19T12:34:00Z

Title of Conference Safeguarding for an Online World Where Kent Police College, Maidstone, Kent ME15 9DW When The same conference will run on Tue 07 Oct 08 - 1 day - 9:00 to 16:00 and Mon 03 Nov 08 - 1 day - 9:00 to 16:00 Designed for: Headteachers from Kent & Independent Primary, Special and Secondary Schools; e-Safety and Child Protection Co-Ordinators; ICT Co-Ordinators, and Police Officers. Aims: Raise awareness of the e-Safety environment. Implementing and updating procedures within the...(read more)

USING ICT TO STIMULATE WRITING PROJECT

2008-09-15T21:35:00Z

19 January - a whole day workshop for 200 Kent teachers. This new and exciting Kent project has been inspired by the work of Tim Rylands, who has been described as “an extremely gifted and inspirational teacher, with a love of the creative potential of technology and an excellent rapport with his pupils” Tim has over 20 years of experience in schools as far afield as the West Country and West Africa. He has gained notable recognition for using the games in the Myst series to inspire children’s creative...(read more)

Making wall sized posters

2008-09-06T16:01:00Z

Have you ever wanted to make your photos wall-sized? Here is a totally free website to upload a photo and then create a saveable .pdf file with all you need to print, cut and stick your own. http://www.blockposters.com Amaze your class with a 6ft picture of you!!!! - or make a walk-in landscape. (Thanks to Tim Rylands for the tip.)...(read more)

Changes to Games pages

2008-09-03T16:23:00Z

The Maths and Literacy games pages have changed over the summer. www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games There were two purposes for this..... firstly to provide more help information for each game. As some of the games are indecipherable! Secondly I wanted all of the game icons to be visible on the same screen simultaneously. This removes the need for little ones scrolling down a long page. The old pages are still available and a link to them can be seen at the bottom of the games page. I'm hoping that...(read more)

Keeping parents informed, and involved, in the homework process

2008-09-03T14:42:00Z

How does your school keep parents informed, and involved, in the homework process? Do you use email to inform parents that their child has a particular homework due in on a given day or to send out homework tasks? Do you set homework tasks via a blog? ( http://watsongowtsblog.wordpress.com/ ) We would love to hear how schools are using ICT to keep parents more informed. Please share what you do by leaving a comment below....(read more)

Website of the week - Heritage Explorer

2008-09-01T12:40:00Z

Heritage Explorer www.heritageexplorer.org.uk Heritage Explorer provides classroom resources and accessible information to create a one-stop shop for teachers seeking to inspire classes at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3. All the information can be downloaded and used for free. Heritage Explorer provides image-based resources for teaching history, citizenship and many more subjects. With over 360,000 pictures, including historic views of daily life, aerial photography, and modern shots of listed buildings...(read more)

Voicethread 4 Education wiki

2008-08-12T07:48:00Z

"A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world." http://voicethread.com/ The Voicethread 4 Education wiki, started by Colette Cassinelli...(read more)

100 Awesome Classroom Videos to Learn New Teaching Techniques

2008-08-12T04:10:00Z

Alisa Miller @ Smartteaching.org has created a useful list of "100 Awesome Classroom Videos to Learn New Teaching Techniques ". "Whether you are a new teacher storing up tips and tricks or an experienced teacher who could just use a fresh perspective, you are sure to find something helpful among these videos." http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/100-awesome-classroom-videos-to-learn-new-teaching-techniques/...(read more)

Myst Computer Game in the Classroom

2008-07-21T08:12:00Z

In Kent, we have many schools eager to use the computer game 'Myst', after being inspired by Tim Rylands at our recent ICT Conference. January 2009 is the official launch of Kent's writing project using the computer game Myst, when we will be inviting Tim back to Kent to run a series of workshops and lesson observations. Whether you are joining in with the official launch or considering doing a unit of work using Myst, I am sure you will find the following two websites interesting: A...(read more)

Google Launches Lively a Virtual World Across Social Networks

2008-07-15T16:14:00Z

Google has launched Lively , a new social network built around the concept of each user creating an avatar and a personal virtual room that can be embedded anywhere on the Web. Although, as with all pupblic chatroom, we can't see Lively being a safe tool to use it schools , it is being used with educators to meet and chat. Getting Started To use Lively, you need to sign up using a Google account and download a browser plug-in. From there, you are able to create your own avatar – starting from...(read more)

Victorian themed days

2008-07-15T09:47:00Z

The clock will be turned back to Victorian times again at the Museum of Kent Life in October. Children will take part in a carousel of 6 workshops with a Victorian theme. This year's workshops are The Victorian Dinnertable, Meet the Toymaker, Victorian Schoolroom, See the Blacksmith at work, What happened in the Scullery, and Learn a Victorian dance. Children are encouraged to come dressed up in Victorian costume to heighten the atmosphere. We have been able to keep our cost the same as last...(read more)

Free British Pathe Film Archive to Schools ending this Summer

2008-07-15T09:38:00Z

From 31 July 2008 the national contract which provides the British Pathe film archive to schools at zero cost will end. Schools may continue to use downloaded film material to the end of August 2009. After that date such material will have to be deleted. The low resolution film material will still be available. For further information, please see attached document. British Pathe Letter [Size: 96Kb] ....(read more)

Website of the Week - The Downs ICT Wiki

2008-07-14T08:52:00Z

The Downs CE Primary School's Wiki http://thedowns.wikispaces.com/ Planning for an ICT Club has just got easier with the help of Mark Warner, at The Down's Primary school. Wikis, like other tools (content management systems, weblogs), are being used by educators as effective teaching and learning tools. The Downs Primary School in Walmer, Kent have created a very interesting and useful Wiki on resources for ICT Clubs. Many schools have approached me asking where they can find avatars for...(read more)

Tim Rylands coming to Kent AGAIN

2008-07-11T09:43:00Z

19 January - a whole day workshop for 200 Kent teachers. Contact mandy.barrow@kent.gov.uk for further details After Tim's inspirational afternoon presentation at the EIS ICT Conference , we are inviting Tim down to Kent for the last two weeks of January 2009 to kick start a whole unit on using Myst to develop Literacy and ICT skills. Tim will be visiting Maidstone, Tonbridge, Malling, Darford East, Cranbrook & PW and Tun Wells in January and we have space for three more Clusters. To register...(read more)

Website of the Week - Bishops in Action

2008-07-07T11:18:00Z

www.bishopsinaction.com The bishops of the Anglican church worldwide meet at the Lambeth conference every ten years to discuss issues which concern the church and pray together. The ‘Bishops in Action’ website: contains material for Religious Education, particularly at KS2 includes powerpoints for the interactive whiteboard, photos, posters and fact files about bishops and their role in the church encourages multi-cultural, global perspectives in teaching about Christianity provides 5 acts of Collective...(read more)

Tim Ryland inspired us all

2008-07-07T10:30:00Z

The Kent ICT Conference was another huge success with the added bonus of an afternoon enthralled with the imaginative ideas of Tim Ryland . Tim, who is mainly well known through his work using Myst to inspire children’s writing, captured his audience attention right from the start with his wit and imagination and, over two hours later, we all left wanting to know more! ThanksTim. Click here to visit Tim's blog about his afternoon with us . "WOW!! It’s a mark of a good afternoon when 2 hours...(read more)

2 Simple Offer

2008-07-03T17:20:00Z

Just to let you know the 2 Simple offer for the entire software collection at £999 will end on July 15th. For more information visit http://www.2simple.com/...(read more)

Gordons - ICT - Simple ITPs for numeracy

2008-07-01T14:24:00Z

Simple interactive Flash programmes from Coventy Learning Gateway . Bingo Number Known Facts Calculations Money Problem Solving Problem Solving 2 Shape, Space and Measures Data Handling Foundation Stage Various strands Special Schools...(read more)

Kent Success in Jaguar Maths Challenge

2008-06-30T16:05:00Z

Many congratulations to Madginford Park Junior School. The school achieved a magnificant third place in the Primary category of National Finals in the Jaguar Cars Maths in Motion Challenge. On 26th June four year 6 boys travelled to Warwickshire to take part in the national final. It began 5 months ago with over 100,000 entrants! The boys won themselves an mp3 player, trophy and goody bag as well as some useful ICT equipment for the school. Well done from all of us at Kent NGfL....(read more)