Ask
an Expert: The latest free service provided by the International
Education Forum is called Ask an Expert. So far fourteen educators
with a wide range of experience of using ICT in the classroom have
joined the panel. This includes John Simkin, Richard Jones-Nerzic,
Marco Koene, Graham Davies, Andy Walker, David Wilson, David Richardson,
Rob Jones, Nico Zijlstra, Derek McMillan, John Birchall, Dan Moorhouse
and Alf Wilkinson. They will attempt to deal with all questions put
to them by teachers and parents.
Ask
Jack: Every Thursday Jack Schofield answers questions in Online
Guardian. The questions and answers are added to this website. For
example, Owen Wilkinson asked: "I've recorded my 1,500 records
on to a 60GB hard drive. Each side was saved as a single MP3 file.
I'd now like to transfer the files to a portable player, which I could
connect to my hi-fi. I would like to divide each file (one LP side)
into tracks to name individually." You will need to visit the
website to discover Jack Schofield's reply.
ICT
GCSE provides
free resources to both students and teachers alike. There are coursework
guides to specific projects along with more general tips. Theoretical
explanantions are deliberately colloquial to help strip out the jargon
within the subject, whilst extremely high quality flash animations
explain topic areas. There is a section of downloadable exercises
which is under expansion, but the highlight has to be the randomly
generated quiz. The questions set are not simplistic and a score of
10/10 is rarely achieved, but the beauty is that every time you log
on to it you get a different set of questions. Certainly the site
is some way from the complete article but is already a key reference
point for ICT students on the Internet.
UK
ICT Cooridinator web site contains free materials and resources
for ICT teachers and coordinators. There are links to primary, GCSE
and A level Computing/ICT sites as well as material for cross curricular
use. The monthly newsletter subscription is free and contains useful
updates. The site has received good reviews already from the popular
Interactive and EC&T school ICT magazines.
ICT:
Schemes of Work: The
Standards Site is managed by the Department for Education and Employment's
Standards and Effectiveness Unit (SEU). The main objective of the
site is to supply teachers with "guidance and tools to help schools
improve effectiveness, raise standards and reduce workload".
This includes a large selection of schemes of work for ICT.
EDU
Forum: The site, created by Simon Morgan of St. Alsager School
provides free high quality ICT resources for both teaching and supporting
ICT in secondary education. To this end, you will find a variety of
practical tutorials covering such things as introducing the Internet,
presentation skills using Word, core areas of Key Skills IT and much
more. Recent additions to the Resource Section includes Top Tips,
Open Flexible Learning and Y7 ICT tests.
Cyberhunts:
Produced by ICTeachers, Cyberhunts are question-based guides through
a series of websites on a particular subject. Cyberhunts available
from this website include, Literacy Cyberhunt, Ancient Greece, Ancient
Egypt Cyberhunt, Art Picturehunt, Britain Since the 1930s, Harry Potter,
Human Body, Cyberhunt Maths, Lord of The Rings, Millennium Cyberhunt,
Olympics Cyberhunt, Rainforests, Rivers, Romans, Saxons & Vikings,
Tudors, Victorians and Solar System Cyberhunt.
TECHtionary:
The producers of this website claim that it is the world's first animated
dictionary on technology. With more new terms everyday the website
currently includes more than 600+ terms and 250,000+ Macromedia Flash
animation effects on telecommunications, data communications, networking
and Internet technologies, TECHtionary can be accessed anytime-anywhere
to learn how things work. TECHtionary also provides key terms and
concepts for preparation of the NACSE – National Association
of Communications Systems Engineers.
Burford
School ICT: The Burford School KS3 ICT website has been created
for students, parents and teachers. Schemes of work are based on the
QCA model, but have been adapted to develop environmental education
themes. The site is divided in to separate sections covering each
KS3 year group. Hints on using different types of software are provided.
There are many help pages for students, copiable worksheets and links
to other useful websites. The main aim is to make resources available
to students when and where they have access to ICT facilities. The
emphasis is on producing resources for our own students, but there
is a lot of material for the wider audience. Visitors are encouraged
to ask questions and suggest developments which they would like to
see on the site.
Questionmarker
is an e-tool that enables the classroom teacher to deliver the testing
and assessment of their students on-line. Featuring the first ever
personalised on-line-markbook, it opens up the world of e-learning
and maximises the potential of the Curriculum online. Ideal for homework,
revision and study leave. Give students test codes, they do the test
at home and their results appear immediately on the teacher's computer.
Kar2ouche
is interactive software that enables pupils to produce storyboards,
animations and publications. This develops contextual understanding,
encourages reasoned interpretation and facilitates creative expression.
Each title has relevant characters, backgrounds, props, text and audio
that pupils manipulate to create storyboards, presentations and publications.
These can be played back, printed and emailed encouraging pupils to
communicate ideas and evaluate other’s work.
Learning
Circuits: ASTD's website provides a collection of articles on
e-Learning. It currently includes a fascinating article by Randall
W. Kindley on Scenario-Based e-Learning. Kindley argues that scenario-based
e-learning differs from traditional e-learning as it places the learner
in real situations and requires behaviour choices rather than simple
answers to knowledge questions. Other articles include E-Learning:
Building the Ramp for Equal Access (Karen Beauregard), TechTools:
Blogs (Jay Cross) and Retooling for E-Learning (Laura Moushey and
James Kirk).
The
Learning Citizen is an initiative sponsored by the European Commission
with the specific objective of facilitating and enhancing lifelong
learning for all members of society. The initiative brings together
technologists, pedagogues, entrepreneurs, institutions and potential
users in a multi-disciplinary approach to tackle this important issue.
The clear goal is to develop sustainable, effective and universal
solutions addressing learning needs across society. This website serves
as a portal to a diverse collection of activities and initiatives
taking place not only within the European Union, but elsewhere, most
notably in the United States. Nine EU-funded projects have been clustered
with the intention to stimulate the wide deployment of appropriate
technology and to support the early adoption of best practice. The
Learning Citizen newsletter is aimed at discussion, sharing and exchanging
knowledge among various e-learning initiatives. The newsletter tackles
topics related to e-learning such as the technology used, the standards
being developed and adopted, the pedagogy adapted to the new media.
ICT
Advice: The ICT Advice site is divided into sections: ' 'What
is...', How to...', and 'Inspire me'. Each of these features detailed
explanatory information on software, hardware, curriculum, management
and more, tailored to your individual needs, depending on your role.
Just select your role from the list and you will be presented with
a page tailored with the information you might need. For instance,
this month, classroom teachers will find help with developing their
own ICT skills - using spreadsheets, e-mail and more. They'll also
discover the latest news such as the online conference, Transforming
Teaching and Learning, to be held in May.
WebWise:
This new online course is the easy way to get to grips with the Internet.
It lets you learn at your own pace and can lead to a nationally recognised
qualification. The eight key sections, or trips, will take you through
the Internet basics in a simple and easy to follow format. It will
probably take you about ten hours to complete the course. WebWise
will help you find out about getting connected, e-mailing, searching,
bookmarking, making your own address book and the very basics of building
your own web page. You will also learn about technological developments
like Digital TV and WAP phones, your legal rights online, the history
of the net, and the other ways in which you might get online.
Richard's
Things: Richard Finnigan has been involved in co-ordinating ICT
in middle schools since 1996. He has created this website in order
to share work and ideas so if you are an ICT teacher hopefully you
will find this website useful. Richard Finnigan has explained what
each resource is about and what it can be used for. On this website
you will find teaching resources, lessons plans and schemes of work
and a few homemade applications.
Internet
Proficiency Scheme: Becta has launched the Internet Proficiency
Scheme for Key Stage 2 pupils on behalf of the Department for Education
and Skills (DfES). The scheme consists of a teaching pack containing
lesson ideas, pupil worksheets and pupil certificates. There is also
an interactive website hosted by GridClub. The site encourages children
to explore safety issues and develop safe and responsible behaviours.
The pack offers guidance on how to use the scheme in the classroom.
There is also information on technologies such as chat rooms, email,
instant messaging, Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging
Service (MMS).
Celebrate
User Group: Educational publishers increasingly see Learning Objects
as the way to develop, maintain and deliver digital, online educational
content that schools can afford. The launch of the Celebrate User
Group will provide a community for European organisations working
in this field and a bridge to international initiatives developing
Learning Objects for schools. This initiative supported by the European
Commission’s Information Society Technologies Programme (IST).
The project will
particularly investigate how different types of Learning Objects and
a new generation of Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) impact
upon the learning process and support new constructivist learning
models.
ICT
Awards: The ICT in Practice Awards aim to identify models of excellent
practice and use these to develop and promote effective practice in
the use of ICT in teaching, learning and leadership. This Becta scheme
allow it to share this information with the wider teaching community
while rewarding individuals who demonstrate exemplary practice in
ICT. Each award winner will receive £2,500, with an additional
£2,500 going to their school or organisation. Each runner-up
will receive £500, with an additional £500 going to their
school or organisation. The awards are open for nominations from 13
March to 25 July 2003.
E-Learning:
The Guardian's latest e-learning supplement was published this week.
Articles include Unfinished Business (state-funded ICT training is
in a mess so where do teachers go next?), The Virtual Art Studio (how
painting on a computer can capture the imagination of children and
teachers alike), Looking Good on Paper (Guardian/Teem guide to printers),
Digital Revolution (a report on a recent digital video showcase) and
Music Makers (a look at how technology is increasing music's popularity
as a subject to study both at school and college).
ICT
in Subject Teaching: This National Curriculum in Action website
now includes examples of pupils' work with ICT across a range of subjects,
with teacher commentary on how the use of ICT enhanced learning in
the subject. The work exemplifies the requirements to use ICT in subject
teaching. You can search for examples of pupils' work with ICT by
choosing 'Using ICT' in Search. Also, on each subject page, 'ICT learning'
links to examples of pupils' work. For each subject, there is guidance
on: ICT learning, ICT statutory requirements and ICT opportunities.
IJET:
The International Journal of Educational Technology (IJET) is an international
refereed journal in the field of educational technology, sponsored
by faculty, staff, and students at The Graduate School of Education
at the University of Western Australia and the College of Education
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. IJET is published
online twice each year and is available without an access charge.
Recent articles include: Extending Learning Opportunities Through
a Virtual Faculty - The Videoconference Option, An Analysis of Teacher
Concerns Toward Instructional Technology, Online Learning in Schools
and Humanities-based Curriculum Online.
Educational
Technology & Society is a quarterly journal (January, April,
July and October), but the articles are published online as soon as
they are ready for publication. Recent topics covered include: Distance
Learning Systems, Interactive Learning Environments, Educational Multimedia,
Collaborative Learning and Environments, Multimedia Applications,
Network-Based Learning Environments, Online Education, Simulations
for Learning and Web Based Training.
Electronic
School: This award-winning technology magazine for teachers was
published from 1987 to 2002 as a print and online supplement to American
School Board Journal, in cooperation with ITTE: Education Technology
Programs, a program of the National School Boards Association. This
site is updated frequently with new education technology resources
from American School Board Journal, NSBA's monthly magazine.
MAPE
is an organization that supports the use of ICT across the primary
curriculum. It does this under the following headings: Curriculum
(ideas and resources for effective teaching with ICT), Communications
(advice on how to use email and the web in the classroom), Software
(reviews of the latest software and how to make the best of what you've
got), Management (help with how to build ICT into development planning
and Hardware (how to optimise available resources and plan for development).
MAPE also produces a termly newsletter covering all developments in
ICT, including reports of government initiatives, reviews of software
and feedback on shows and conferences.
ICT
Teacher's Guide: An updated ICT Teacher's guide for key stages
1 and 2 has been sent to all primary schools in England. It includes
a range of new integrated tasks for existing units, showing how key
ideas, skills and techniques in ICT can be applied and developed in
other subjects. If you have not received a copy you can download it
from the Standards Unit website. To help teachers make the most of
the schemes, the people from the Standards Unit have added examples
of how primary school teachers are customising them. You will also
find examples of how teachers have adapted units in different subjects
to reflect their particular circumstances and to better meet pupils'
needs and abilities.
LessonPlaniT:
Recent research shows that nearly half England's primaries have an
interactive whiteboard while 82% of secondary schools have them. The
Interactive Whiteboard Company is giving away LessonPlaniT software
to every school in the UK. LessonPlaniT works with all whiteboards,
regardless of manufacturer, and on all common computer platforms and
operating systems. To claim your free copy you need to complete the
registration form on the company's website.
NAACE
is the professional association for those concerned with advancing
education through the appropriate use of information and communications
technology (ICT). The association was established in 1984 and has
become the key influential professional association for those working
in ICT in Education. The NAACE mark has been developed by NAACE, in
association with Becta. It is an award which recognises a school's
success in developing and implementing a strategic approach to ICT.
It provides a framework for using ICT to enhance teaching and learning
and provides opportunities for the school community to develop ICT
capability. Working towards and gaining the NAACEmark enables schools
to move forward with the knowledge that they are implementing recognised
good practice.
ICT
Magazine: The ICT coordinators' magazine is a new publication
which can help you keep up to date with news, events and articles
relevant to the needs of ICT coordinators in all schools. Delivered
direct to your email in-box every month and also available online,
the magazine is written by and for ICT coordinators. The current issue
includes ICT Snapshots (quick ideas on using ICT in the classroom),
Deepening the Pool of Knowledge (ICT in the city), ICT Challenge (take
up the challenge - you could win a prize!) and Reader's Corner.
ICT
Questions: Should ICT still be taught as a discrete subject or
be embedded across the curriculum? Why should young people need to
study ICT? These are some of the questions that Gareth Mills, principal
consultant at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and a government
adviser on ICT will be answering on the Education Guardian website.
Questions should be emailed to Gareth Mills at: education.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk.
ICT
Education Community: Microsoft is attempting to create an online
community for UK teachers to share information and ideas "about
the best use of ICT in schools". The Education Community has
a news service to update teachers and managers with stories of best
practice, and experts are brought in to field curriculum questions.
The website facilitates the pooling of information to avoid duplication
and share learning on the effective use of ICT to improve learning
outcomes and school management. The
home page contains an overview of the latest content and resources
that you will find throughout the site.
Derek
McMillan: This is the website of a teacher at a West Sussex school.
It is under continual deconstruction. It has material and links on
cyberpsychology including the "Letters to Lara" project
which examines the relationship between children and the characters
in a computer game. It will develop alternatives which can be used
to subvert (or improve) the Government Framework for ICT and links
connected with ICT generally.
European
Schools Project is a project for promoting telecommunication between
primary and secondary schools all over the world. It was started at
the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) by Henk Sligte and Aad
Nienhuis. There are now more than 300 participating schools from over
26 countries from all over the world. The project has websites in
English, Dutch, Czech, Danish, German, Finnish, Swedish, Italian,
Japanese, Portuguese, Slovenian and Slovak.
ePALS:
Engage yourself in a multicultural e-learning community of students
and educators, partners and friends, sharing authentic writing and
learning experiences in a safe communications environment. It provides
discussion boards, password-protected chatrooms and monitored email
accounts and claims it is used by 4.5 million students and teachers
in 191 countries.
Open
Gateways: Sun is helping create the schools of the 21st century
by developing new models of instruction, where students are able to
utilize the network to become active learners and teachers are empowered
with network-based tools that promote student centered instruction.
Sun is also promoting a global Education Learning Community to create
a set of standards connecting nations and academic institutions. The
company hopes it can be used to share resources and for work on collaborative
projects. Scott McNealy, chairman, president and CEO, Sun Microsystems
claims: "Sun is always working to champion best practices in
global education through the development of tools and technologies
that give students a learning advantage and education leaders a budget
advantage."
Innovative
Teacher: The Innovative Teachers Program is based on two premises:
That technology is a powerful catalyst to improve learning, and that
teachers learn best from their peers. This program delivers free,
high-quality professional development opportunities to districts and
schools, based on the sharing and replication of exemplary learning
projects. Created in partnership with the American Association of
Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), Innovative Teachers is dedicated
to bringing together a community of teachers as learners and facilitating
the creation of collective knowledge. Other objectives include creating
a platform for the advancement of best practices and adoption of innovation
and providing training and access to technology resources.
Content
Generator: In future anyone will be able to purchase and download
these advanced programs to generate their own Flash games. These interactive
games have been a major part of the success of Andrew Field's multi
award-winning educational websites SchoolHistory and Revise ICT. These
interactive games are easy to create and are perfect for starter,
plenary, revision and recap activities. Adding an element of fun competition
will enliven any lesson or training session. Games are based on a
minimum of 20 questions with no maximum number - questions are chosen
randomly each time the game is played.
Bloke
on the a Bike: Drew Radford, is packing up his computing gear,
priming up the engine of the Bavarian and donning his leathers. Once
again he is preparing to launch into the unknown – the Australian
outback. He will be digging up and presenting radio and TV stories
about people and the environment in regional Australia. He’d
like you to have a go too, as he can’t visit every cool place
in Australia. As “Junior Journos”, in the outback Drew wants
you to get out into your local community and then link up with a school
in another part of Australia and together prepare an online report
about how technology has, is or could change life in the Australian
outback.
E-Learning
Credits: This month sees £100m worth of e-learning credits
being made available to schools. However, the Department for Education
and Skills admitted last week that there was still £75m unclaimed
from the 2003-04 budget. Any credits which are not used will be taken
back by the government in August. Eric Spear, the former president
of the National Association of Head Teachers says: "Of course
they are not being used, there's a limit to the amount you can spend
on software. We're approaching saturation point."
Strategic
Leadership of ICT: Headteachers throughout England have the opportunity
to register for the Strategic Leadership of ICT (SLICT) programme
which will be running in the autumn term. Developed
jointly by Becta and the National College for School Leadership (NCSL),
The Strategic Leadership of ICT programme (SLICT) is a targeted intervention
programme aimed at assisting headteachers to develop the knowledge,
skills and understanding to take a strategic lead of ICT in their
schools. In February 2003, the Secretary of State for Education announced
the national rollout of the SLICT programme to provide up to 10,000
places by 2006.
National
Whiteboard Network: Interactive Whiteboards are becoming an increasingly
common classroom resource and already schools and LEAs are seeing
the benefits that this technology has in transforming teaching and
learning across the curriculum. Teachers are using the technology
to develop their range of pedagogical strategies and are beginning
to exploit the technology to act as a catalyst in enhancing teaching
and learning. Guidance on how teachers use of Interactive whiteboards
can be found in the "Review and Implement" section of the
National Whiteboard Network website.
Computer-Based
Assessment: This section of the National Foundation for Educational
Research (NFER) website aims to provide an authoritative guide to
Computer-Based Assessment (CBA), which is becoming an increasingly
important part of the assessment agenda. A number of influential thinkers
have argued that such an integration with the curriculum could lead
to a future in which assessment played a more positive role in education.
However, others have sounded a note of caution, and have reminded
enthusiasts that not all would be pleased by more complex assessment.
NFER has conducted a variety of research into this branch of assessment
and this guide is based on that expertise and experience.
Visual
Thesaurus: The Visual Thesaurus takes a unique, and remarkably
beautiful, approach to presenting the results of a word lookup. Discover
and learn from nearly 140,000 words, meanings and relationships Through
its emphasis on exploration and vocabulary building, the Visual Thesaurus
can improve reading, writing and communication skills. Type in a word
in the text box to the upper left of this window, click "look
it up," and you'll be rewarded with an interactive map showing
the meaning of your word. If you'd like unlimited access to the Visual
Thesaurus, you will need to subscribe to the Online Edition, or buy
the Desktop Edition.
Dialectizer:
Samuel Stoddard's website allows you to convert English text to any
of several comic dialects. The Dialectizer takes text or other web
pages and instantly creates parodies of them! Try it out by selecting
a dialect, then entering a URL or English text below. Options include
Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron, Pig Latin,
or Hacker. The translation is done via a huge series of search-and-replace
operations. The translation programs do not analyze sentence structure
or keep track of parts of speech. They merely look for certain sequences
of characters and replace them with other sequences. The search strings
are sometimes whole words, sometimes parts of words, or sometimes
more than one word. The most complex are Cockney and Redneck, which
have between 600 and 900 search strings.
Do you
want to have your website listed in our web directory? If so, send
a brief description (about 150 words) and the URL to spartacus@pavilion.co.uk.
