Wednesday 17 June 2009

Subject Leaders Meeting 24th June


We look forward to seeing as many people as possible on Wednesday 24th June at Redbridge Teachers Center for our termly:


ICT SUBJECT LEADERS MEETING

Hall, S4, S5





REMEMBER TO BRING

A charged laptop

A flip video camera

A range of printed ICT work from a child you have taught.

As always supply cover is paid, please register on PDC.

Agenda

Updates - Local and National - Nic and Anthony

ICT Assessment - Nic and Anthony
- What is ICT capability?
- Why do we need to assess ICT Capability?
- How to assess ICT Capability?

Anithings - Your chance to collaborate on exciting new software with the developer - Stripey Steve

Lunch

e-Safety assemblies - Anthony

Your choice of workshop
How to shoot and flip in 3 minutes - Brain Molloy
How to model and build a house in less than an hour using Google SketchUp - Anthony

Monday 8 June 2009

The Redbridge ICT Conference 2009

This year we welcome Stephen Heppell to the Redbridge ICT Conference. Alex is at the helm of the conference ship this year and he has created a poster for you to print out and put in your staff rooms. If you have not heard Stephen before, then click through the recent talk he gave at Handheld learning at the Barbican earlier this year. I am sure Conference 09 will be another time of inspiration, networking and equipping, and we look forward to seeing you there!!




KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Professor Stephen Heppell
“Europe's leading online education expert” (Microsoft)
“The most influential academic of recent years in the field of technology and education” (DfES)
Stephen is a founder board member of Teachers.TV, he sits on BAFTA's Film Committee
and is retained by UK government for Horizon Scanning work to
advise on future directions for educational policy.

AUDIIENCE
All Redbridge school staff with responsibility for leading ICT
Head Teachers, Senior Leaders, Directors of eLearning, ICT Coordinators, ICT Subject Leaders,
Network Managers, ICT Technicians, ICT Champions, ICT Lead Teachers, …

CORE OBJECTIIVE
To be informative, practical and inspirational
The conference aims to answer the key technology questions being asked within schools,
to present a range of practical ideas that could have real impact in your school, and to empower
teachers to be creative, innovative, practical leaders of change in their context

ON THE PROGRAMME
Themed streams of opt-in workshops and presentations
Redbridge schools’ projects covering international and local activities
Hands-on training by Education City, Sam Learning and Immersive Technologies
Presentations on The Rose Review, Online Reporting and the Self Review Framework
MIS developments outlined by RM, SIMS and Pearson
eSafety advice and tools from Childnet and Forensic

TO BOOK A PLACE
To attend the ICT conference, either register at www.redbridgepdc.org.uk
or email Tina.Pennells@redbridge.gov.uk

Thursday 4 June 2009

Next Generation learning Videos

Next Generation Learning now have their own YouTube Channel. There are some great videos here that can be used to stimulate discussion or open an INSET session.

Here is my current favourite:





Find others on the Next Generation channel.

Film Club







It is clear from the interest in our Film Competition, that many of you are interested in using and working with film with your children. The Film Club looks like a great free resource to help you explore this area further in an after school or Lunch Time club.


FILMCLUB is a network of after-school film clubs. It gives young people the chance to journey through the limitless universe of film. With weekly screenings and activities, FILMCLUB is fast becoming the most popular school activity in the country.



Here is some further information about the project from NATE, its organisers:


FILM CLUB is one of the most exciting initiatives I’ve come across in years. Love film? Love FILM CLUB!
Ian McNeilly, Director, NATE

Designed to inspire, entertain, and arouse creative and curious minds, FILMCLUB provides your school with a choice of thousands of films, your licence for screening, promotional materials, and free training for teachers. We have an interactive website onto which your students can upload their own movie reviews and we also run an exciting range of events, competitions and a film industry interaction programme where we arrange for special guests to visit FILMCLUB member schools. FILM CLUB is funded by the DCSF so all of our services are completely FREE to all state funded primary and secondary schools!

“FILMCLUB is a fantastic resource for our School Club. The children love being able to choose films for their own ‘Club Cinema’. It has been a real pleasure seeing children share their enjoyment and appreciation of different films. Characters have been discussed, amusing scenes recounted, it has been astonishing the amount of positive social interaction that FILMCLUB has inspired.”



(Nichola Douglass, FILMCLUB Leader, East Borough Primary School)



For more info - visit the web site: http://www.filmclub.org/

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Free £10 - Just for having a Visualiser Demo











Here is a free gift from AVER Media for Redbridge schools and the chance to get a through demonstration of a visualiser, which I know many people maybe thinking about buying.

Aver Media have run pilot projects with Visualisers in our neighbouring borough of Havering, as shown in the film below:





Adrian Kite from AverMedia, says:

A Visualiser from AVerMedia is just what you need to enthuse your students, making learning fun, spontaneous and engaging. Our dedicated sales team would be delighted to show you how
a Visualiser can help you to deliver an even better classroom experience for your pupils and make your job easier!
  • A visualiser can connect to virtually any projector or whiteboard
  • Provides a striking visual element to your lessons!
  • Can be used to support all National Curriculum subjects
  • Capture, annotate and save pupils work - ideal for supporting Assessment for Learning objectives

To book your FREE demonstration, please contact us by email - simon.k@avermedia.com or telephone 01908 371 772
Alternatively complete
the form here and fax back to
01908 644 259
You will be sent the vouchers of your choice following the demonstration.
Please note that no cash or alternatives will be offered in lieu of vouchers

Monday 1 June 2009

Assessment Course, Fronter News




Welcome Back

I love these videos from Microsoft, which you must have seen recently during the ad breaks of programmes like 'Britains Got Talent'. They are part of the company's 'I am a PC' campaign.


What strikes me about this particular clip is that the child is not using Movie Maker as part of her end of SATS project in Year 6, no she is in Year 3, and probably could have done something similar when she was in Year2!


Food for thought eh...

Anyway, we took a small break for SATS week and the half term holiday, but now we are back with some key bits of news and links.

In this Issue:



  • That enlarging thing on the Whiteboard that Alex does


  • Assessment Course

  • ESafety Clicker Grids


  • Fronter Adaptions for SEN

  • Just In




'That enlarging thing on the Whiteboard that Alex does'




Many of you will have attended courses or training with either myself or Alex, where we have managed to greatly zoom in on a detail on screen. In case you missed this tool, it is called Zoomit and can either be installed or run directly from the website in the background. Its Microsoft, so it is safe to use and avoids some of the more fiddly zooming tools you often get with whiteboard software.

Zoom it can be found by clicking on this link.




Assessment Course Wednesday 10th June










Next week we are running or assessment course on Primary ICT. We are very excited by this, as this year we welcome along Julian Nietrzebka as our course tutor.

If you read the biog below,it is clear that we have the National expert on assessment in Primary ICT, therefore this will be a very comprehensive and authoritative day.


Who is Julian Nietrzebka?



Julian has extensive experience of leading the strategic development of ICT. He is passionate about the power of ICT to enable learning and inclusion and currently leads LearnSW, an independent educational consultancy. Previous posts include PNS Senior Regional Adviser for the South West including responsibility for ICT, Primary Link Adviser ICT with Torbay LA, and Senior Curriculum Adviser ICT, Northamptonshire LA. He was one of four consultants working with QCA to develop APP ICT at KS3. He has written and contributed to a number of ICT national resources including a Primary Framework for ICT, Hands on Support Guidance, Learning and Teaching with ICT in the Primary Phase, Curriculum section of the SRF, Strategic Leadership of ICT for SIPs, and Assessing ICT Capability Primary. He is an accredited primary SIP and ICT Mark Assessor. Before becoming a cross phase advisory teacher in 1988 Julian was a Head of Art and Design.

Here is the draft agenda:





  • Implications arising for educators from the current educational and global context


  • Effective Assessment for Learning and the use of modern technologies


  • Assessing Pupils Progress in ICT รข€“ principles and practice


  • Agreeing standards in ICT and strategies

  • Resources and next steps

If you are interested in coming, or sending a teacher/ICT Coordinator, then there are a few places available, though please be aware that delegates need to bring 3 or more pieces of ICT work from a range of contexts from lessons that they have taught..

Note if you are from outside Redbridge and want to attend, we may be able to accommodatete you, but at a charge. email me ASAP



Animation Day

Before half term we had another successful and inspiring animation day at the Teachers Centre. Delegates explored the use of claymation, stop-motion and 2d applications. One of the sessions looked at using 2Animate in quite a simple way to demonstrate Scientific processes. I'd like to say this was my idea, but it came from Katie from 2Simple during a Twitter discussion the day before the course. Using 2Animate in this way is incredibly quick and can be achieved with just a few frames, as opposed to the long and tedious click, position, click process that we use for clay animation type flicks.

Here are a small selection of examples made by teachers during the day:




ESafety Clicker Grids

Thank you to Sandra @ Crick who has alerted me to the Clicker Grids they have created to accompany the new Know it All for Primary resource from Childnet.

She writes:


Just a short e-mail to give you some up to date information on a project we have been involved in with Childnet International, and the new UK Council for Child Internet Safety.The project, Know IT All for Primary Schools, contains a 3D animation called 'The Adventures of Kara, Winston and the SMART Crew'. To support and reinforce the e-safety messages contained within this resource, Crick Software has created related Clicker activities.

These are currently featured Clicker 5 resources within Learning Grids.The animation covers Childnet's 5 SMART rules, which have been proven to be effective in helping younger children understand the importance of keeping safe online. Through their travels Kara and Winston use the internet, mobile phones, social networking pages and chat to negotiate and find their way through the adventure. On their journey they are able to interact with a real life SMART crew who give advice to help Kara and Winston stay safe.
Clicker presents a simplified version of the story in an on-screen talking book format, offering the opportunity for reinforcement of the key messages contained within the five rules and is designed so that teachers can follow-up the story and the very important messages contained within it."Internet safety is vital for all children and we are thrilled that Crick Software has joined us in supporting this resource.

As Clicker is used in over 90% of primary schools, and with over 70,000 registered users of their LearningGrids World site, Crick's support has meant that this resource is readily accessible to teachers working with children at all levels in a primary school setting." said Will Gardner, CEO at Childnet International.

Note from Anthony:

The SMART rules are also available on the KIA site in Widget Symbol format, what a great idea!!

Click here for these, if you download these and put them in your ICT suite, or near a computer let me know!!

Fronter Adaptions for SEN

Fronter have produced a handy guide for using the London MLE with pupils with Special Educational needs. Many of the thinsg in this guide are useful for children with SEN, regardless of the MLE, it is worth downloading from here.


Just In:

Some of you have called about courses in 2009/2010 - contrary to what you may experience of Redbridgepdc these courses are not fully booked, it is just that they are not open for bookings yet. We are waiting to ensure all the dates are confirmed. Details soon!

Scribble Maps - it was previously very difficult to embed a google map into Fronter- Scribblemaps allows you to create your own annotated maps using Google maps, these can be embedded as a Flash file in Fronter or Digital Brain.




BBC Earth has launched its own ">Youtube Channel, there are some excellent clips in here that would greatly enhance Geography, Science or Literacy.




Sugarstacks.com - want to show how much sugar there really is inside food and fizzy drinks, let this site show you. Though many of the products are American, there are still many that your children will be familar with gorging on. Check out the Nesquick picture- eerregh. Maybe your class could make their own pictures!!

And...

Those nice people over @ Brainpop UK have put together a little video that explains Swine Flu , follow the link here