I came across this fantastic website via The Whiteboard Blog written by the ever knowledgeable Danny Nicholson. If you haven’t seen his blog it’s well worth a look as the site is packed with some really useful interactive whiteboard resources, including some great generic ideas that can be adapted to any curriculum area.

Isle of Tune is a visual music sequencer in which you create a road layout and add houses, flowers, street lamps etc. to create the musical notes.  The car travels along the road and plays a sound every time it passes one of your objects. By clicking on the object it is possible to change the pitch or sound meaning that users can create a wealth of different tunes quickly and easily. The site also has a gallery of user created tunes with some of the top rated tunes being well known pop hits. It is possible to save your work on the site with space for up to three saved files; however this is per machine as it is cookie based rather than user specific. If you want to save your pupils work once it is completed it’s probably worth using a screen capture device such as the Smart recorder tool and then saving it as a wmv file. This way you can then string a number of files together using Windows Movie Maker (Free download) or other software. If you don’t have interactive whiteboard software installed on the machine you could always use other freely available software such as  Camstudio.

http://isleoftune.com/

Tuesday 7th June 2011: Hull – Wednesday 8th June 2011: Scunthorpe – Friday 10th June 2011: Huddersfield

Time 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm

Do you have reluctant writers? Do you want explore how to use ICT to stimulate literacy?

If so, then this workshop is for you! YHGfL, in association with Espresso Education, is hosting a FREE Motivating Writers Workshop – ideal for ICT and Literacy Coordinators that work with Foundation to Key Stage 2 pupils.

ICT has been recognised as a powerful tool that encourages pupils to put pen to paper. By attending this half-day workshop, you will learn how to use digital resources creatively to engage and motivate your reluctant writers, and to support your literacy teaching.

This ‘hands-on’ workshop will cover:

• using video to enthuse pupils in creative writing
• using Windows Movie Maker* together with videos, to produce news reports and inspire poetry writing
• using Photo Story3* together with photos or video screen grabs, to create sequencing activities and author stories
• producing podcasts as a stimuli for writing for a purpose.

*Free software available over the internet.

Not an Espresso school? No need to worry, this workshop is designed for everyone. All the skills and ideas involved can be used with any video content.

However, if you are not a subscribing school, you will have the opportunity to sign-up for a free, four week trial of the Espresso service at this workshop.

Please use this link your book your place

http://www.yhgfl.net/News-and-events/eLearning-Events

A new national awards scheme, backed by digital champion Martha Lane Fox, seeks to celebrate the innovative and diverse ways in which charities, businesses, schools, government and the public have harnessed the power of technology to bring positive social benefits for others.

The brainchild of e-accessibility charity AbilityNet and sponsored by BT, the unique scope of the UK Technology4Good Awards offers nominees the opportunity to showcase their expertise in a range of areas including: accessibility, volunteering, innovation, fundraising, creating partnerships, community action and meeting the needs of disabled customers.

Nominations are welcomed in eight categories up to the 9th May deadline via www.technology4goodawards.org.uk/ With additional support from: AppiChar, Barclaycard, Charity Technology Trust, Camelot, HiSoftware, IT4Communities, Microsoft, RaceOnline2012 and UK Online Centres, the UK Technology4Good Awards offer a unique opportunity for outstanding and inspirational achievements in digital inclusion to obtain national recognition for the first time.

The winners, selected by a panel of leading IT experts, will receive their prizes at a high profile awards ceremony to be held at BT Centre, London on 7 June 2011. The Awards are free to enter at www.technology4goodawards.org.uk/

The Audio Network music service for schools has just been updated bringing twice the music, more on-line tools and a schools licence for you to use the music in the classroom and with the school community. This fantastic resouyrce now offers even more opportunities for schools when searching for high quality music.

Brought to you by the National Education Network and London Grid for Learning it is free-for-users in schools who are part of the Yorkshire & Humber Grid for Learning.

More music

• More tracks … 30,000 plus to choose from  … and more every year to keep things fresh … that 10,000 more every year!
• More types of music … everything from grime to classical; from traditional folk to electronica; from musical sound effects to national anthems of the world.

More ways to search for what you want:

• search by multiple descriptive keywords …
• search by title, composer, type of music …
• search by tempo …
• search by length of track …
• search by using the online beatcounter …

Logon now at www.audionetwork.nen.gov.uk

To celebrate climate week, BCS has launched a digital media competition for schools. The challenge is for schools to get their students to create a digital media project on climate change or environmental issues, which can have either a global, national or local focus.
The competition is open to all schools and all students and there are a range of prizes available – including the latest iPad2 in a special ‘green’ cover – and there are a variety of ways to enter.

The project can be a video, podcast, presentation, animation or website offering a wealth of choice for pupils and teachers. The BCS state that they aren’t looking for a Hollywood blockbuster- Try to keep it short (such as a one minute TV ad, or up to a 5 minute documentary for video, a 3-5 minute radio show or a 30 second animation)

The competition is open to all students from schools and colleges under the age of 18 and the closing date is July 1st giving you plenty of time to prepare your entry.

For further information visit the BCS website
http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/39406

My Online Neighbourhood is a video created by Common Sense Media and is aimed at American children from kindergarten through to third grade, which is equivalent to Y1-4 for us. The film aims to introduce younger pupils to the basics of eSafety in a fun and interesting way. Lasting 3 and a half minutes in total it is narrated by 7 year old Jeremiah who talks about how the internet is similar to his neighbourhood. The film concentrates on all the fun things children can do online but also very neatly slots in 3 important rules for using the internet.

Please note this film is hosted on youtube which is blocked in some schools- for further information about unblocking youtube contact your local authority help desk.

How can I use My Online Neighbourhood to enhance teaching and learning?

The video is a great way to introduce eSafety awareness to younger pupils and would be a useful starting point for a unit of work or just as a refresher activity mid-way through the school year.

One alternative is to use it in a literacy lesson with upper KS2 and KS3 as a prompt for writing for a younger audience. After watching the video pupils could be encouraged to script and produce their own eSafety video or presentation aimed at KS1.

The website itself has a range of lesson plans, resources, tips for parents and videos that can be used to promote an eSafe culture within your school. There are some great ideas that can be easily adapted  to add a cross curricular approach such as the digital footprints lesson which sees pupils following animal trails to find out information- this would be a great for the outdoor and adventure aspect of PE or could incorporate geography and science.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/k-5/digital-citizenship?utm_source=edu_news

Date: 12 May, from 6 to 9pm

Location: West Yorkshire Playhouse (Congreve Room), Leeds.

Have you ever wondered what a Teachmeet is? Why not come along to a Leeds Teachmeet?

Teachmeet is all about teachers sharing ideas and it is coming to Leeds. Come along to inspire and be inspired with creative teaching ideas. The event is free and there will be a free drink and nibbles, goodie bags and a raffle. You can choose to share – a 7 minute talk or a 2 minute nano presentation – or just to listen and be inspired.  Don’t let the length of the presentations put you off as they will be packed with interesting and exciting ideas that you can take back and try in the classroom.

The event is being organised by Jon Farley and Paul Magnall, those of you on twitter can also find out more by following Jon(@peregrine99)  or Paul (@singingsprocket ).

To find out more or to sign up visit the Leeds Teachmeet page

http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/35675644/Leeds-Teachmeet-May-2011

Smartboard Goodies is a great blog that is packed with ideas, links and resources to use on a Smart Interactive Whiteboard. The site is the work of an American teacher and includes some American history resources but it’s worth delving a little deeper as there are some great links and downloadable files for different curriculum areas. The site is aimed at primary teachers but there are some items that Key Stage 3 teachers may find useful such as the Facebook Smart Notebook template.

http://smartboardgoodies.com/

Planet Foss is an amazing websites that brings creativity and technology into the science curriculum in an incredibly simple and meaningful way. Students are encouraged to take photographs of a range of different scientific concepts in the real world and upload them to share with others. For example in the Force and Motion category students are asked to upload images showing motion, gravity or speed.  In addition to uploading images students can also search for and view images taken by others.

How can I use Planet Foss to enhance teaching and learning?

One of the most tricky aspects of science can be relating it to the wider world and the fact that science is a key part of everyday life.  Through using the challenges on the site and developing your own challenges you can really get your pupils thinking about science in a new and exciting way.  Why not set the activities as a simple monthly homework challenge via the VLE or use a blog to share some of the best images from the site or your students work?

Many of the images from the site can be used as a stimulus for discussion- for example choose an image and ask your pupils what they think it represents. How is it showing the concept? You could also print some of the images and ask the pupils to sort them into categories- a simple thinking skills activity that can be highly effective at provoking discussion.

http://www.fossweb.com

This week the ever creative team at Google have launched Art Project. Working in partnership with 17 of the world’s top galleries, Google have combined Street view technology to allow you to virtually visit places like the National Gallery or the Van Gogh Museum.  This amazing project allows you to get up close with some of the major artworks from around the world. Due to copyright laws, some pieces of art will appear a bit blurry when students zoom in, however each gallery has one special image that can be zoomed in to an incredible level of detail.

Users with a Google account can also create their own collection by saving the complete image or a selection from a painting. Comments can be added and then via a unique url the collection can then be shared with others.

How can I use Google Art Project to enhance teaching and learning?

• Virtually visit some of the world’s top galleries on your IWB, for added fun ask pairs of students to work together as the tour guide- they could research the galleries in advance.
• Create a virtual collection highlighting key elements of portraiture from across the different galleries.
• Create a class gallery of favourite images including comments about why the person has chosen that piece of art.
• Ask students to consider how they would design an art gallery- could it be improved?