Primary Bits and Bytes

(Posted by Fiona)

The last few weeks have seen the release of new eSafety resources. Safer Internet Day 2012 (SID 2012)  takes place on Tuesday 7th February with the theme of Connecting Generations and Educating Each Other. The main event website can be found at http://www.saferinternet.org, keep checking the resources section, resources for this year’s event should be available in the next week or so.

CEOP ThinkUKnow will be supporting SID 2012 by broadcasting The Parents’ and Carers’ Guide to the Internet, which will be available to stream or download and use during parent information sessions. The video and other resouces will be available from the ThinkUKnow website on the 9th January.

YHGfL have also set up a support page for SID 2012 http://www.yhgfl.net/eSafeguarding/eSafety/Safer-Internet-Day-2012. At present it has videos to support schools in planning an event. Further materials for use on the day will be available shortly.

YHGfL have teamed up with ROAR Educate to offer schools the opportunity to buy an eSafety software product called ‘Grapple’ which can be used by parents and children to help bridge the knowledge gap between different generations. ‘Grapple’ will be offered to YHGfL schools for a discounted rate and ROAR Educate will allow schools to sell the software to parents/carers enabling them to raise funds for the school. More details of this unique opportunity for YHGfL schools will be available in early January. For a sample of Grapple and useful eSafety challenge for parents and pupils, see the ROAR educate website homepage.

The UK Safer Internet Centre have released a new resource to support parents, which fits in nicely with this year’s theme. A Parents’ Guide to Technology is an online guide which includes information on the  safe use of gaming devices, tablets and smartphones.

(Posted by Fiona)

Welcome to the new school year, I hope everyone had a restful break. I went to peaceful Pembrokeshire and had a lovely time building sandcastles and rockpooling. The crabs remained elusive, much to my son’s disappointment.

Things have been fairly quiet over the summer, however there has been a significant news update from YHGfL; they have been shortlisted for the ICT Excellence Awards 2010 in the Support for Schools category. The results will be announced in October, good luck to them.

Don’t forget to book your ICT professional development for the year. The upcoming courses and networks for this term can be found on the Courses page of this blog, or on Kirklees Ednet at:

http://www.kirklees-ednet.org.uk/management/cpd/brochure/cpd.asp

(Posted by Fiona)

I had good intentions of  posting about the latest ICT network meeting the day after it happened, but I blinked and suddenly it’s 2 weeks later! It was an enjoyable meeting with several presenters. Victoria Parsons from YHGfL demonstrated free resources available from YHGfL and the National Education Network (NEN). She showed the NEN Grid for searching the free resources by subject and key stage. Here are a few of the best freebies:

Audio Network – a huge bank of high quality copyright free music

NEN Gallery – free high quality images, sounds and video clips

e2bn Myths and Legends – includes a myth creator

The Birdbox Project – a selection of live birdbox webcams

Simon Briggs and Elliott Moores from Smarter Solutions demonstrated the Fizzbook Spin working with SmartSync software. The software allows documents, web addresses and video clips to be sent straight to each child’s  computer over the nerwork. It also has useful classroom management tools such as being able to send messages or freeze screens when it’s time to listen. For more details see their website.

I introduced a new CPD publication from Becta called 21st Century Teacher, which can be used to raise teacher awareness of how they could make use of ICT. It also includes a questionnaire which teachers can use to identify areas for development. The toolkit can be dowloaded from the Becta website (publications section).

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 23rd June at the Deighton Centre.

(Posted by Dughall)

Friday 26th March, 6.00 – 9.30 pm Doncaster South CLC

I’ve mentioned Teachmeet in this blog before (here, here and here). So what is it? Well, boiled to its bones, it is good quality, free CPD.

I first encountered a Teachmeet at the BETT show in January 2009 and was an instant fan. Teachers (and others with a direct involvement in education) took to the stage and spoke enthusiastically about things they were doing in classrooms. They were short, punchy, informative presentations of ideas and resources that you were left feeling you could probably use in your classroom the following day.

Hearing first hand from practitioners about things they have tried, things that have worked and problems encountered and solved is very powerful.

One of the nice things about Teachmeets is that although they are increasingly happening all over the place, technology allows anyone to attend via the internet. This ‘virtual’ attendance can be entirely passive or might involve a degree of participation from ‘afar’. These distance contributions might be actual presentations (via web-conferencing) or may be texted questions or comments.

I have now attended a number of Teachmeets in person and virtually and I have also given presentations in situ and virtually. In the spirit of Teachmeet, I have shared examples of my own practice in the classrooms of Kirklees.

Last year, I went to Manchester for a Teachmeet with some Kirklees teachers (one of whom spoke enthusiastically about the use of the DBPrimary Learning Platform with her Foundation Stage children). We shared a lift and on the return journey we were buzzing with the ideas that had been shared. We also decided that there was a need for something like this to happen closer to home. This was a seed sown.

Since then, plans have taken shape, cogs have slotted together and wheels have turned and Teachmeet Yorkshire & Humberside will be taking place later this month (26^th March).

One of the considerations for this event was to make the venue as accessible as possible for people to attend from a wide area – this is why we decided upon Doncaster – with its access to A1/M62 and other major roads. Doncaster South CLC is a fantastic, modern, flexible venue where attendees can come and know that they can attend in comfort, borrow a laptop or connect their own (if they wish). Credit must also be given to Damian Ward (Curriculum Manager at the CLC) for his work in helping this to get off the ground and for his excellent publicity materials. (Poster) (Flier).

So here’s where you come in.

• Please head over to Website and read a bit more about the event.
• Please consider whether you might be able to come along for some or all of the evening.
• If you can’t come, please consider checking in via the internet (a link with details will appear on the Teachmeet Y&H page closer to the date).
• Print off the poster and display it in the staff room, notice board(s), corridor(s) etc
• Print off the flier(s) and distribute accordingly.
• I know that you are doing or have done something with your pupils worth sharing with others – please consider sharing your practice with others on the night by signing up for a presentation.

I sincerely hope to see you there.

By all means contact me directly if you would like to know anything more about it or if you have any questions. dughall.mccormick@kirklees.gov.uk

(Posted by Fiona)

Would you like a set of Flip video cameras for your school? If so, why not enter YHGfL’s Cyberbullying competition? All you have to do is create a digital resource on an anti-cyberbullying theme – this could be an animation, story, poster, poem, song, podcast, film or anything else you can think of. The closing date is 3rd April 2009, so there is still time to enter.

For full details see the YHGfL website at:

http://www.yhgfl.net/eSafety/Safer-Internet-Day-2009/Competition