The fantastic mylearning website from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council are looking for teachers to review their resources.

My Learning Review Panel

• receive a free iPad2
• be continuing their professional development
• be contributing to a prestigious national project
• become part of a wider museum/learning community

• The panel of five will consist of teachers from different stages and subjects:
  - 1 x Foundation/KS1
  - 1 x KS2
  - 3 x KS3/4 Arts/Humanities/Sciences
• Shortlisting will be carried out via a questionnaire giving a brief summary of your teaching specialism and experience in using online resources, and reasons why you want to be on the panel
• Applications to be submitted by noon on 30 June
• Shortlisted applicants will then be asked to review a My Learning resource during w/c 11 July
• Panel selected by mid-July
• Successful applicants will be asked to sign a contract of commitment which, if not fulfilled, may result in the iPad2 being returned
• An initial meeting will take place in Leeds* in August – date tbc
• Reviewing will take place online
• A final evaluation meeting will take place in March 2012
• *Travel expenses will be paid to attend meetings

If you would like to be considered for the My Learning Review Panel please complete the online questionnaire.

Show.me.uk is a free to use, non-commercial site produced by Culture24, packed with games and resources generated by the UK’s museum, gallery and heritage sector.
Whilst the website is aimed at young people it also has a  section for parents and teachers. The site also has a section on Place to Go, here you can find out about museums, galleries, archives, science centres and heritage sites in your area- great for finding places for a school trip!

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?

The snowy weather was not going to stop staff and pupils from Deanfield School in Calderdale. When their field trip was cancelled all the pupils were already dressed up ready for a World War 2 ‘Evacuation Experience’ with no where to go! Having previously done some video conferencing work with Yorkshire and Humberside Grid for Learning , the school phoned them to ask for help . The staff at YHGfL were able to call on partners from the National Education Network and arrange a video conferencing session with the Beacon Museum in Whitehaven, Cumbria. The Beacon Museum is part of the CLEO video conferencing Project and provide curriculum sessions for pupils in schools connected to the National Education Network.

To read more about this story and hear just what the teachers and pupils thought, go to the NEN news site.

NEN Video Conference News

Caboodle’s fun, free and full of fantastic photos taken by kids. It’s a place to show off your coolest stuff and to get creative. Caboodle’s all about your collections, with surprises from museums and galleries thrown in.

Once you’ve joined Caboodle you get your very own Caboodle page and profile. Then you get to upload your photos of whatever you collect. It could be almost anything… snail shells, toys, rocks or oddly shaped snacks. Spotty stuff, stripy stuff, lego creations or homemade treasures… we want to see it all. If you love it, Caboodle it!

Visit the site HERE

You can find a user/ideas guide HERE

Watch the Deep video conferencing case study from the Deep, Hull

Museum Link

Watch the Meet A Miner Video Conferencing case study from the National Coal Mining Museum For England

Museum link    www.ncm.org.uk

Links to UK VC content providers

Use the search tool   search the YHGfL website for other VC opportunities