Easter Activities

i-board regularly make a small selection of their resources available to teachers free of charge.  Currently http://www.easter.iboard.co.uk contains 6 activities suitable for KS1 and early KS2.

They are free to use and you can also link to them from your website, Merlin and My First Place. They are creative, pattern making activities, some themed around Easter. Simply go to the library area of the URL provided and click  “Show All Activities”. Note: When you get to the launch screen of an activity it contains a “copy link” button and “download thumbnail” button to support easy creation of lessons in a Learning Platform.

If you would like to see all i-board resources go to http://www.iboard.co.uk/free free to register for a free trial

Christmas is Coming!

Now that December is here and we can officially turn our thoughts to Christmas, why not take this opportunity to add some festive entries to the new SWGfL Media Gallery. Get you pupils creating their own festive images using collage and scanners, digital cameras or graphics software and upload them to the Festivals and Celebrations area of the gallery. Not onle could you win a Digital Movie Creator (DCM3) for your school, but your images could be added to the SWGfL Postroom to be sent as e-cards.

Full Competition Details here.

Artisancam and Stitch It Up!

If your looking for some fun activities and inspiring ways to develop the use of ICT in Art, you can’t miss Artisancam. Developed by one of our sister Regional Broadband consortia, CLEO ( Cumbria and Lancashire online) it is a comprehensive online arts resource. All of the activities support the national curriculum in specific areas at Key Stage 2 and 3 and are linked from the SWGfL learning Grid section of the website

It provides an insight into the lives of contemporary artists. Using a mixture of video and interactive activities, it introduces children to the world of contemporary visual art before encouraging them to have a go themselves in fun and exciting ways. The website is divided into the Artists Zone, which contains classroom-based activities and the Activity Zone, which is full of games and fun interactive activities, designed to encourage children to continue their learning at home. For example, children can fire their own ‘virtual’ ceramic pot, or design their own piece of jewellery online.

In addition, CLEO are launching a national competition, Stitch IT Up, inviting pupils to design their own duvet online (there’s even a virtual sewing machine!). The competition opened on 15^th October and will close on 14^th December (nice Christmas project?). There will be regional and then national winners.

For more information, and to enter, please visit the Stich it up site: 

Kaleidascope Painters

If it’s got to that time in the term when you’re tearing your hair out trying to think of constructive activities to amuse your pupils. Or perhaps you need amusing whilst others are still trying to get things finished , try some of these. A range of sites that allow the user to create the most amasing onscreen visual patterns. Also really good for SEN pupils who respond to strong visual images and Early Years pupils.

If you want to test and develop ICT capability, why not try copying the image (use Screen Grab Pro or Snippy to capture an image from anywhere) and editing it in a graphics package such as Revelation Natural Art.

Kaleidascope Painter   Java Kali   DrawToy2    Byokal17 Kaleidascope   Reactive Colours

More Podcasting!

The link below will allow you to listen to the first attempts at podcasting by a group of six Yr 3, 4 and 5 pupils from a Wiltshire Primary School.

After an initial input, they spent 1/2hr or so experimenting with the software, recording their voices, adding sound effects and editing the content. They then chose a play to record, allocated roles and rehearsed the script. Those not allocated speaking parts looked for suitable sound effects to add to their play. The group came back together to perform and record the play and then worked together on editing and adding sound effects. They wrote an introduction and ending and hey presto…we’re there!

Despite the challenging behavior sometimes displayed by some members of the group in other classroom situations, they remained focused, worked collaboratively, and were able to work together to overcome any problems and difficulties relating to the project. They respected the views and contributions of others and were supportive of each other and able to offer constructive criticisms to help the combined project. A review of the afternoon reflected the fun they had all had and their keenness to share their work with others.

After the initial input, the ICT became an invisible tool that allowed them to perform the tasks required to complete the project, this surely is where we want to be with ICT? I had a really good afternoon and so too, I believe, did the children who were delight to work with.

Please do listen and let us know your thoughts.You can subscribe to our podcast by copying the following hyperlink and pasting it into your favourite podcast player (e.g. iTunes).

http://www.podiumpodcasting.com/~182488/HGSTNQ100707192621/rss.xml

Primary Blogging

Blogging is now a worldwide phenomenon with weblogs reaching a potential audience of hundreds of millions. Blogs have been described as the ultimate in publishing for the people and have been used to challenge governments and the press. Steve O’Hear, one of Britain’s digital evangelists, explores how blogs can be used in schools. Steve finds some enthusiastic primary age bloggers and sees how it helps in literacy, ICT skills and a range of other subjects. He finds many of the benefits extend beyond the curriculum. Blogging can help pupils:

• Develop confidence
• Improve their self expression
• Get a real sense of fulfilment from publishing their work

Watch the video on Teachers’ TV to learn more about how primary aged pupils are exploring this new technology.

Learn how to blog and podcast on our Developng New Technologies course

26-4-07

Melksham PDC

Developing Use of New Technologies

Making a booklet

Been on one of our courses recently where we showed you how to make a booklet in Textease and forgotten how to do it? Fear not, help is at hand! We are pleased to be able to share our first ever podcast publicly. This is a first attempt so please forgive the quality, but do let us know if it was useful.

Click here for a copy of the Textease template.

 Click here to listen the audio file.

 

Reading Level Calaculator

Ever wondered what  the reading level is of documents you use with puplils in you class? Well here’s a handy tool for estimating the reading level of a book, article, or web page, based on the SMOG readability formula. This formula was first published by Dr. G. Harry McLaughlin in 1969, and it has been widely used by editors and writers ever since.  Why not give it a go? Simply paste the text into the window and click calculate.

How are we doing ?

Primary Nuggets =12.62,  ICT Centre Website=13.39, ICT Nuggets =10.8, SEN Nuggets 14.10

 Give it a go http://www.linda-andrews.com/readability_tool.htm

ICT Centre Website goes live

At long last, the new and improved Wiltshire ICT Centre website goes live!

We hope that this will be a useful place to help you keep up to date with new developments in ICT, both in Wiltshire and nationally. We hope you will find a link here to every thing you need in your role as ICT Subject Leader and as a classroom teacher. If there is something which you feel we should add, please feel to let us know and we will do our best to include your suggestions.

http://www.ictcentre.wiltslea.org.uk/ to view for yourself