Primary Bits and Bytes

(Posted by Dughall)

A few useful resources have come into my radar since last posting.

• An interesting online art application, ‘Artpad’ . This is relatively limited in terms of actual tools for creating your work of art (resizeable brush, Pollock-style splash, text). However, the thing I like about this is the ability to ‘replay’ the creation of your masterpiece. I’m put in mind of the likes of Tony Hart and Rolf Harris with the words ‘Can you tell what it is yet?’ resonating in my head as my own humble creation replayed before my eyes. The site also gives artists the option to share their (framed) work in a gallery and view others’ works – although this feature is blocked on the schools’ network for (presumably) reasons of proprietry given the ‘unpredictable’ nature of others’ artwork.
• Selenia’s World of Science Comics is a site focussing on Scientific enquiry and materials. In my opinion, this site is something of a Curate’s Egg so you may need to dig around to see if there’s anything there that you might find useful.
• You may like this Telescopic Text site. Starting with a simple, 3-word sentence ‘I made tea’, you click on the words and see how it expands before your very eyes. I could imagine this being a useful Keystage 2 Literacy stimulus.
• I had one of life’s ‘moments’ yesterday morning. I got up and stumbled bleary-eyed and barefoot into the living room only to place my foot directly onto a lego brick. This particular moment was only rivalled by the time a year or so ago when I hopped out of bed, putting my bare foot onto an upturned 3-pin electric plug. Anyway, I digress. I am a huge fan of Lego and their excellent website. However, such pain might have been avoided had the brick been ‘virtual’. Yes, virtual Lego is now available here. I’m not suggesting a replacement or substitute for ‘real’ Lego, but the virtual stuff is certainly less painful! While we’re on with blocks, David Merrill’s ‘Siftables’ look pretty cool. In fact, I want some!

(Posted by Fiona)

The following announcements were published by Becta on the Topteachers forum:

1. Futurelab has just published a new report on primary learning spaces that will aid those involved in the redesign of educational learning spaces, particularly the PCP and BSF programmes, and FREE copies are available on request (while stocks last).

‘Reimagining Outdoor Learning Spaces’ aims to inspire and provoke creative thinking regarding outdoor learning and play spaces. It urges those involved in redesign to be innovative, radical, pioneering and to rethink the possibilities offered by this once-in-a-generation opportunity to help reshape and improve the broad educational experience for all young people – outdoor space is a vital element contributing to any child’s development and educational experiences.

To view the publication online and to request a FREE copy, please visit www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/handbooks/Handbook1187 If you would like to request multiple copies to distribute to a network or at an event, then please e-mail claire.denney@futurelab.org.uk .

For those interested in the redesign of learning spaces the following new online report (on a project where learners were co-designers of an outdoor interactive water fountain) may also be of interest: www.futurelab.org.uk/projects/fountaineers/research

2. Announcement – ICT Excellence Awards 2009

Becta has launched the ICT Excellence Awards 2009, to seek out the best and brightest schools that are using technology to help learners achieve.

There are 4 awards categories for schools, with cash prizes:
*Best whole-school – also with regional winners!
*Beyond the classroom
*Leadership, management and collaboration *Learning experience

There is also the Support for schools category for organisations who support school improvement with ICT.
The final deadline for entries is 11 March 2009.
Application forms and details about the ICT Excellence Awards can be obtained from www.becta.org.uk/excellenceawards For more information, contact Becta’s Awards Team on email at excellenceawards@becta.org.uk, or by telephone on 024 7641 6994.

3. Announcement – Emerging technology area on the Becta website

Becta are pleased to announce the launch of a new Emerging technology area on the Becta website.

At http://www.becta.org.uk/emergingtechnologies you will find:
*articles from the Emerging Technologies for Learning series (with a new article published each month) *TechNews – with new content each week *key technology trends *technology research from Becta and elsewhere *discussion forums *information on events related to emerging technologies.

The area offers new ways of accessing TechNews including RSS feeds and the ability to compile a PDF* document from selected articles.

Initial content for the new area is taken from January 2009 and previous TechNews issues but, from now on content will appear on the Emerging technology area ahead of the PDF download version being available.

You can propose research and events for possible inclusion on the area, and we’re also keen to hear from you if you have other suggestions or feedback. Via emergingtechnolgies@becta.org.uk.

4. Notice – Becta and Comic Relief

Becta and Comic Relief are calling for all schools to get involved in Red Nose Day 09 with a schools competition to find Britain’s top classroom talent.

In support of this year’s Comic Relief theme ‘Do Something Funny for Money’ this competition encourages schools to ‘Perform Something Funny’ and upload their own content onto the Red Nose Day Schools Showcase.

Each participating school is in with a chance of winning £5,000 worth of ICT equipment for their school. The competition hopes children and teachers will embrace technology in the classroom, showcasing both humour and the innovative use of computing facilities.

Entries can be anything from singing to dancing to stand-up comedy and will be judged by a panel from Comic Relief and Becta, following online voting by visitors on the Red Nose Day website. All entries must be unique, creative and – most importantly – funny to be in with a chance of winning.

Full details of the press release are on the Becta website http://news.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=39367 . For details of the competition and how to enter visit the Red Nose Day site http://www.rednoseday.com/do_something/school/competitions.

 (Posted by Dughall)

Thanks again to Nottinghamshire Keystage 2 teacher Tom Barrett for more great ideas. See his post here on 10 Digital Writing Opportunities You Probably Know and 10 You Probably Don’t

Although there is mention of payed for software such as Kar2ouche, he has also reminded me of/brought to my attention some excellent free resources.

Highlights for me are:

• Poetrypicture You are presented with a picture and can drag relevant vocabulary from categorised lists.
• Myths and Legends A great website for creating and sharing stories. A bit like Kar2ouche but free, online and in a specific theme.
• Wordle Create word clouds for an uploaded text.
• Adventure Island “Adventure Island is a web-based tool for classes, schools and groups to create an interactive online island that other people are able to visit and explore. You can create descriptions for each area of your island, and these can be written in either the style of a story, diary, guide or game, as you wish.” You need to email them to obtain usernames and passwords.
  

Do visit/bookmark/subscribe to Tom’s blog for regular sources of inspiration and resources.