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.
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.
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