SMART versus Activ

Nicholas has been learning Activ Primary, he has been a dedicated SMART user for ages, see what he says by clicking here.



I wonder if any other coordinators have tried both, and or have strong preferences towards one platform, if so why.

New 1/2 Term and Fireworks

I am sure you can do better than my effort above

Welcome back after another very short holiday. I know this is perhaps the busiest time in the school year with Diwali, Sukkoth, Halloween, Firework night and eventually Christmas on the Horizon.

There has been some frenzied blogging and comments over on the subject leaders blog about firework pictures. Look at the More Fireworks post and related comments, there you will find examples of firework pictures, thankfully note all of these have been done in a 2Simple package!! Dan from Hatton has left a comment with a link to an on-screen firwork generator. Unlike some of the Firework screen savers on the download scene, this one operates by mouse movements and comes with effective firework bangs. Fireworks and the festivals that use them provide some great contexts for learning with ICT. If you are doing any work with fireworks this week or in the coming weeks, please do share. Even a simple picture done by someone in your class will serve as an inspiration or challenge to another Redbridge teacher or other reader of this blog

Have you seen Val's post by the way- check it out below

Earthcam

Create an account with Earthcam.com and you will have access to live webcams from around the world.

Easy to access and manage.

Once you have viewed your places of interest, create your own Mycam page and this will enable you to add your favourites for fast and easy access next time you want to view them.

What a great way to share places of interest.

http://www.earthcam.com/

Posted by Val Barker

QCA progression documents/ Wokingham pilot Scheme of Work

Today's leading teachers meeting continued to focus on creating planning documents. We have been using a variety of sources of information, but one that we have found invaluable is the Wokingham pilot scheme of work, which is based the QCA primary progression documents. The pilot documents can be found from the link below.

http://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupID=142195

We have been using these to inspire our planning and ensure that our ideas continue to be challenging, exciting and inspirational to all.

New Early Years Scheme of Work for ICT

Newham's ITASS service have been kind enough to put a new ICT EYFS scheme of work online. I have taken a quick look and it seems to be built around the use of computers, peripherals and ICT in the real world/role-play.

Also check out David's post below on E-missions. Isn't blogging great we're up to 3 authors at the moment. I'd love to involve more of you in this process of sharing, collaborating,celebrating and communicating about Primary ICT. Please email me if you'd like to author a post and you lack the skills or permissions.

Best Video Conference ever!

Operation Montserrat is the best use of video conferencing kit for London Schools. Many primary children think this disaster management conference with the National Space Centre is real. The target audience is upper KS 2 and KS 3. You do not even need video conferencing kit. I know a man called Gary who can fix that. Mina (LGFL wonder woman) will support all the video conferences in schools. Go to www.redbridgepdc.org.uk and book on now. You and your year 6s will miss out otherwise. The date of the essential training for operation Montserrat is the 15th of October. Batten down the hatches now! This conference has great curriculum links. For more info click here.

Remember if Carlsberg did Video Conferences.....

Podcasting

Many of you have begun to Podcast, (or at leats to think about it anyway). As a London school you are fortunate to have your Podcasts hosted for free on the LGFL., you can visit http://podcast.lgfl.org.uk/ for free London hosting today.



Before uploading your first Podcast, you will need to login and create a channel, and for this you may need an atom wide account. If you don't have an atomwide account then email Anthony or (for a quicker response Gary Jelks). If all this sounds a little confusing, then don't worry a handy guide has been produced by the LGFL, this can be found in the box widget at the sidebar of this blog, or by clicking here.



To visit a school that has already begun to podcast, you can look @ Parkhill Juniors here, while the Redbridge Podcasting has started a blog to record their work over the coming year, click here for that. John Wix has also been busy with some of his children and the DJ Fanz podcast can be found here

If you have any difficulty listening to any of these pods, then please leave a comment.

Of Course- Don't Miss out!!

There are a number of good ICT courses coming up at the teachers Centre in the next few weeks, if you have not seen these here they are:

Introduction to Leading & Managing Primary ICT -

Tuesday 9th of October

So far this only has 1 delegate booked on, if I don't hear from anyone else by the end of the week I will need to cancel this event.

Using Espresso Effectively For Teaching And Learning -

Friday 12th of October

Please make sure that either yourself or your CPD coordinator books online for these courses, this allows us to photocopy enough notes and prepare coffee and biscuits.

Visit http://www.redbridgepdc.org.uk/ to book