Technical Forum and Fronter Network Meetings

 

Just a short entry to pass on details of our Technical Forum and The Fronter Users Network.

A message from Alex Rees about the Redbridge Technical forum

(or to put it another way coordinators meeting for technicians)

 

 

 

Redbridge Technical Forum

 

“Switched on and networked for learning.”

This conference is the first in a series of events set up for technical staff supporting and administrating the computer systems within Redbridge primary and secondary schools. The programme is designed to ensure that whatever previous experience you have – whether as an expert systems engineer or as someone completely new to the role – you will find the RTF of real value with relevant information and fresh ideas you can apply easily within your own school.

Friday 16^th October 2009
Redbridge Teachers’ Centre

Morning

9am Welcome & Coffee

1. Hardware trouble-shooting
Some practical help with some real issues that are being encountered daily within our schools.

2. LA news
An update as to the ways the LA is currently supporting the work in schools.

3. Best practice
Using the current best practice guidance mixed with practical experience-driven common sense to give you a clear idea of how to replicate best practice in your school.

Lunch

Afternoon

4. New technologies
A series of short presentations on the latest technologies schools in Redbridge are implementing and the issues surrounding them.

5. In my school…
A case study of experiences from a colleague’s school. The obstacles, the solutions, the bit where everyone is smiling in the end!

6. Did you know?
Some ‘free’ or ‘almost free’ resources that you could use in your own school.

3:45pm

Close with Q & A

Booking Information

Redbridge Technical Forum is a no-cost event run by LBR but to ensure catering is planned for you do need to register your intention to attend. Booking can be completed online at www.redbridgepdc.org.uk or by emailing tina.pennells@redbridge.gov.uk.

 

Booking Information

Redbridge Technical Forum is a no-cost event run by LBR but to ensure catering is planned for you do need to register your intention to attend. Booking can be completed online at www.redbridgepdc.org.uk or by emailing tina.pennells@redbridge.gov.uk.

 

Fronter Users Network (North Group)

 

 

Rob Spriddle, our associate consultant for Primary MLE/ICT Subject Leader at Redbridge Primary School , writes the following about the Fronter Users Network:

There is a Fronter Network Meeting (North) –

Thursday 8th October 2009

4:00pm – 5:00pm

Venue:

Redbridge Primary School, College Gardens, Redbridge IG4 5HW

This is the inaugural network meeting for the new school year. We’ll be:

• Sharing good practise
• Top tips to embed Fronter usage into school life where appropriate
• Interesting projects (reporting back and initiating new ones)

The following schools are in the Northern part of Redbridge and therefore are invited to attend this meeting:

• Oakdale Juniors
• Nightingale Primary
• Redbridge Primary
• Parkhill Juniors
• Churchfield Infants
• John Bramston Primary
• Gearies Infants
• Gearies Junior
• Fullwood Primary
• Fairlop Primary

There will be a Network Meeting for schools in the South of the borough during the second half term.

Many thanks,

Rob

Anithings Competition

 

I am thrilled to announce to all Redbridge Primary schools the launch of the Anithings /Redbridge Animation Competition.

 

This competition is open to all Redbridge schools and offers you, our teachers and subject leaders the chance to work with some very creative software, and bring excitement and creative opportunities to the classes and clubs you teach. Anithings was recently showcased at our Subject Leaders event and attracted a lot of interest from you.

    

What is Anithings?

Anithings is a brand new children's creativity tool. It enables animated stories to be created simply and quickly, allowing children's creativity to run wild.

Children can design and create their own characters and settings or use ready-made ones from the bank. Stories are animated by simply dragging the timeline slider and changing an object’s position, colour or size, or by recording motion using the mouse.

Animated stories can be created to link with any topic, be it Vikings, Pirates, Fairy tales or wherever your imagination takes you. The addition of speech bubbles to your characters enables a unique storytelling medium to enhance and build upon literacy skills. Add special effects to enhance mini masterpieces or use the storyboard to plan an epic movie.

So what do you have to do?

Attend the launch event on

15th of October 2009

4:30pm

Parkhill Infants School

You’ll receive free software and brief training on how to use this new application

 

What then ?

Animate and innovate with your class or computer club, submit your examples of animation work to the competition website, where you’ll also find full details and terms and conditions.

If you intend to come to the launch, please email Anthony asap or sign up on the Facebook event page.

 

 

Blogger Labels: Parkhill Infant School,Anithings,Redbridge Primary ICT,Animation,Animate

London Grid for Learning Primary Schools' Conference 2009

                                             

More details have been announced of the LGfL Primary Schools Conference 2009, which we highly recommend:

“There are a wide range of relevant seminars for teachers to choose from, plus key presentations in the plenary sessions.  We are very pleased to welcome Sir Tim Brighouse, former London Schools Commissioner, as our opening keynote speaker.

While there is a strong focus on the use of learning platforms, and the London MLE in particular (the conference is jointly organised with Fronter), the event provides an invaluable opportunity for schools to increase the benefit they derive from a wide range of LGfL services and on-line content.

There is, incidentally, an opportunity for delegates to take a conducted tour of the stadium, which is fascinating (for some) and takes in the impressive players’ dressing rooms and the directors’ dining room!  

The date has been carefully chosen, being the first Monday after the half-term break, when some schools may wish to take advantage of an Inset closure day and bring the entire teaching staff for a full day of CPD.

As with the successful secondary/SEN event held in July there is a small delegate charge of £48+vat which includes lunch and refreshments through the day.”

Booking is now open at www.events.lgfl.net, where you can also find the provisional programme for the day. Do let us know if you are planning to attend so that we can meet up with you during the day.

Autumn ICT Update 2

Subject Leaders meet again on the 6th November – have you booked?

Welcome to our regular update from Redbridge Primary ICT

In this issue:

• IBoard activities
• Fronter Training
• Fronter Competition
• Teachers TV programme on using computer games in the classroom
• Video Central – Safe Video Hosting free for schools

Iboard Activities

A reminder to look at the excellent Iboard activities available to all London schools on the LGFL  These are ideal activities for Foundation and Key Stage 1 children and include all curriculum areas.

Find these resources http://iboard.lgfl.org.uk/

Here is one such activity that allows children to create their own postcards. They can type in their own address, customise the picture of their face and drop in an appropriate picture of home all without having to do any complicated file navigation.

 

Fronter Training

 

We are pleased to announce a number of Fronter training and development days for schools who have adopted the London MLE. Unlike the two day training days that many of you will have been on, these days will be lead by a primary teacher who currently uses the MLE in her classroom. These days will be a mixture of ideas to inspire and practical hands-on support, with an open time where colleagues can receive support in developing rooms within their school building.

When are these events?

Day 1	18.11.2009
Day 2	24.03.2009
Day 3	07.07.2009

Who is running these events?

These day sessions will be lead by Rosemary Hunt of Coopers Lane Primary in Lewisham. Rosemary works part time as a Fronter Consultant around the country, delivering training and writing teachers guides. We are very privileged to have such an engaging and knowledgeable practitioner to work with us on this and other events.

Who can attend these events?

You need to be a member of the school Fronter Early adopters* team and not a Fronter beginner. We expect that you have attended some form of training, either the two day course from Fronter, some training from someone in your school or Basic 1 and 2 from the LA. This is not just a course for ICT Coordinators and it is absolutely not aimed at school technicians.

* Early Adopters are members of the pilot group identified during the LA implementation meeting.

How can I book?

These events are on Redbridgepdc and will require all delegates to fill out a preregistration form, once they have booked on. Do email Anthony Evans or Alex Rees for more information should you need it.

Will you need to bring anything?

As per usual we will require you to come equipped with a wireless enabled laptop.

Technicians training, Webfronter Courses and the Redbridge Technicians Forum dates will be released in due course, please email Alex Rees for more details on these events.

Fronter Competition

Fronter Schools should be receiving a flier about a competition run by Fronter UK, see below.

You can download the info leaflet on this competition by clicking here

 

Using Computer Games in the classroom

Teachers TV have just released a programme on using commercial / off the shelf computer games in the classroom. The programme features Oakdale Junior school and the pioneering work of our own Dawn Halybone.

Click here to visit the programme page

Don’t forget we have a Redbridge Computer Games in Learning Network running this year, click on the image below to access their blog.

 

You may also find this guide to being safe with a console helpful. This publication from OFCOM came out last week and is very easy to follow.

Find it here

 

Video Central

 

(note you wont see anything if you are using the admin network)

Video Central is the LGFL answer to video hosting. It allows a maximum upload of 1024mb and works in a similar fashion to the podcast site,uploads are quick and the embed code is easy to locate and yes users need to dig out that Atomwide account to make it work.

So why not just use Youtube - of course Youtube is fine, but there are issues- many users are not clear how to tweak settings so that when you embed your video on a blog it avoids linking to so called 'related videos'. Also some parents have a negative perception of Youtube as it reaches a wider audience and though it contains educational content, that content shares a server with some very undesirable clips.

I still think Youtube is an excellent tool for educators and pupils, though users need to exercise caution when they use it. Teachertube is an option but as the streaming is so slow it can take an age for a video to appear.

Here is a video that Simon Haughton made for me on Sketchup, lets see how it stands up to being embedded in Blogger.

 

 

 

I tested this last month and I was puzzled that at first there was a no-show. I shouldn't have worried,I had forgotten that I was on the borough admin network, which blocks pretty much most things.When I got home it showed fine on my machine and after a call for help from my Twitter colleagues it seemed to show fine in New Zealand, London and Scotland.

It should also work fine on Redbridge schools curriculum network too. As there was no sound on this original video, I have now uploaded a second more tuneful clip of Leo using the IWB.

I think teachers now have a safe and easy means of sharing all those great clips on their blogs and MLE. I look forward to seeing these appear on Redbridge websites in the coming months.

Blogger Labels: Update,Subject Leaders,Primary ICT,IBoard,Fronter,Video,Video Central,LGFL,Foundation Satge,Rosemary Hunt,Early Adopters,Technicians,Webfronter,Games,Oakdale Junior,OFCOM,Youtube,Twitter

Autumn 2009 ICT

Welcome

 

Welcome back and welcome to another exciting year for ICT, both here in Redbridge and beyond. For those of you new to this blog, please see it as your first stop for news on all things Redbridge ICT, if you are also a new ICT Coordinator,please do email me to introduce yourself as soon as possible, then I can ensure you are kept up to date with course information.

In addition to this blog, you can also find more immediate news on my blog and on our Facebook pages. Do bookmark my blog and became a fan of Redbridge ICT on Facebook.

 

Anthony Evans

 

 

In this issue

• Advice for New Subject Leaders
• Feedback from our last Subject leaders Meeting
• Up and Coming Events
• Make a MII

Advice for New Subject Leaders

Taking on the role of ICT Coordinator or Subject Leader is a tough job, though it is probably one of the most exciting and rewarding jobs in a Primary School. We are running a course on this role later in the term, which together with this blog and the borough support network goes some way to helping you lead and manage the subject. In the mean time I recently plucked the brains of two very experienced ICT Professionals to ask them for their top tips for new ICT Coordinators. Here is the first of those videos from Terry Freedman, webmaster of the ICT in education website and former chair of NAACE.

 

Feedback from our Last Subject Leaders Meeting

During our Subject Leaders Meeting in Summer Term, we set you the task of sharing your Links, Frustrations and Celebrations. You did this in a very old school way, using Post It notes and felt tips, so we have done what we can to extract all these and publish them here on the blog;

Links

• ITASS
• LGfL content Grid
• http://www.original.com/ -(flash games to play on whiteboards useful incentive)
• ICT games -
• Ripple Primary School in Barking
• http://www.flashvortex.com/
• http://www.british.council.co.uk/
• http://www.visuword.com/
• http://www.mathszone.com/
• http://www.simplescience.net/
• Animoto for Education

  Did we miss yours out or get it completely wrong? If so then, please comment in the box below.

Celebrations – Things you were pleased about:

• ICT team - core group of ICT people in school
• New SOW working (staff reported back)
• Wireless and netbooks
• Visualiser training was great
• Headteacher pro-ICT
• Everyone is using their whiteboards
• Headteacher is supportive
• Out of class for ICT next year
• Reorganising use of laptops and whiteboards
• Film competition was success / lots of enthusiasm
• Foundation Stage art on computers
• Teachers embracing technology - cross curricular
• Creative use of IWB
• Registered commitment to ICT
• Innovators meetings
• Enthusiasm of children when it was film week - using flip cameras
• Hardware systems are robust
• Keeping technology - keeping in touch with innovations
• Getting the ICT mark
• Kids innovating , blogging - kids interacting
• Reluctant teachers embracing ICT
• ICT is now core subject (Rose Report)
• The way my children have taken on Fronter
• ICT week in school - staff and children's enjoyment has been good to see
• Film competition was success / lots of enthusiasm
• Film competition project
• More specific inset for staff (filtered training)
• Fronter
• New KS2 SoW with training
• New scheme of work
• Most staff are happy
• Enthusiasm of the children when creating their own film

Frustrations – Things that bugged you:

• Not using new software stick with what they know
• Barriers to getting things done
• Basic staff training on small problems
• Slow uptake by staff Staff printing out work and leaving it / not collecting
• So much to do and not being sure where to start
• ICT not taken seriously as subject
• Full time job - not enough time Keeping teachers motivated to use ICT
• Staff - the ones that are whingey and reticent to change
• Headteacher (over controlling)
• Hardware issue needing immediate support
• Has instructor that takes all ICT lessons feel de-skilled
• Network is slow
• ICT TA does not support pupils
• Not having enough time to do projects etc
• Not always using new technology e.g. tape recorders when have MP3 Players
• Technical support (more required)
• Hardware does not always work
• Fronter - uneasy trepidation - how to communicate to staff?
• Network problems
• Encouraging teachers to keep their learning update planning - on server
• Hard to get staff engaged in ICT
• ICT resources
• Lack of technical support When things go wrong - programs clash

Up and Coming Events

PLEASE NOTE: All courses require you to bring a charged Laptop

Self Review Framework Workshops

Whole School ICT Issues Workshop - Element 2 (Organiser: Alex Rees, ICT Adviser) Tue 29/09/2009 09:30-12:30 S4, F8, RTC Please click on this link Redbridge Teachers' Centre to book course place. _______________________________________________________

 Whole School ICT Issues Workshop - Element 6 (Organiser: Alex Rees, ICT Adviser) Tue 29/09/2009 13:30-16:30 S4, F8, RTC Please click on this link Redbridge Teachers' Centre to book course place.

________________________________________________________________

Primary MLE Basic Training 1& 2 (Organiser: Anthony Evans, ICT Consultant, Rob Spriddle, Redbridge Pimary) Wed 30/09/2009 09:00-16:00 S4, RTC Please click on this link Redbridge Teachers' Centre to book course place. Details to follow shortly. ________________________________________________

 

 

Redbridge Technicians Forum 1 (Organiser: Alex Rees, ICT Adviser) Fri 16/10/2009 09:00-16:30 Hall, F3, F4, RTC Please click on this link Redbridge Teachers' Centre to book course place. Details to follow shortly.

Create a MII

This originally appeared on Anthony’s Blog

Do you want to quickly and easily create a classroom display that will allow your class to showcase their creativity, individuality and all in a very familiar context?

Are you looking for a great starter for your Key Stage 2 ICT lesson?

If you are, then visit or download the Avatar Editor, a free Adobe Air application that allows user to create avatars that look and feel just like Nintendo Mii figures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Miis that you create are not in a format that can be animated and moved around on screen as in Wii Sports, though they can be exported as Jpeg or PNG. Choosing PNG means that you can opt for a transparent background and hence more easily integrate the figures into presentations or Notebook files.

 

 

 

This shows 4 avatars exported as PNG onto a PowerPoint slide with a blue background.