Primary Bits and Bytes

(Posted by Dughall)

Regulars will know that I am a fan of Tom Barrett and his innovative work in the primary classroom. There are many teachers like Tom who are prepared to take risks, explore the possibilities that technology affords and constantly seek new ways to engage learners. What marks Tom out, though, is his extraordinary willingness to take that passion beyond his own classroom, his own school and even beyond national boundaries. He does this most notably through his wonderful blog and Twitter (although you might be lucky enough to catch him in person at a Teachmeet). He is responsible for the ‘Interesting Ideas’ series and his ideas for applications from Google Earth to Wii Endless Ocean are an inspiration to us all.

Well, The Edublog Awards are inviting nominations and I can think of no more fitting educational blog worthy of nominating. So here’s to Tom Barrett’s blog! Check it out.

That’s my nomination for ‘Best Individual Blog’

(Posted by Fiona)

Here are the documents from the Subject Leader meeting on Thursday afternoon:

Smart Notebook Presentation

Draft Revised ICT Level Descriptors

(Posted by Fiona)

I have been watching the developments of touch screen technology with interest over the last couple of years. Touch screens make computers accessible from an earlier age. Very young children find the concept of a mouse difficult, as they can’t make the link between moving the mouse and the cursor moving on the screen. It makes much more sense for them to interact with the screen directly. Touch screen devices used to be very expensive, with tablet PCs and Ultra Mobile PCs costing around £800. This is now changing, and I have been looking at two devices which look very promising for 2 and 3 year old children.

The first is the Fizzbook Spin from Zoostorm, a netbook with a touch screen and stylus, whixh costs around £330. It can be used with the keyboard and mousepad, or converted to use as a tablet with the stylus. It is possible to use the touch screen with your finger, but you need to press quite hard before it responds. I tried it out with muy son aged 2 years 10 months, and after about 10 minutes he was perfectly happy using the stylus to navigate the Poisson Rouge website. He was really pleased that he could do it independently, rather than asking me to move the mouse to select what he wants to look at. Here’s a video of my son using the Fizzbook. It seems to be appearing 3 times at the moment, I’ll remove the extra ones when I work out what the problem is!

Online Video [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The second one to watch is the Eee Top from Asus, a touch screen desktop computer which is a bit like a mini interactive whiteboard with the computer built into the monitor. I tried one last week and found the touch screen very sensitive and easy to use. It comes with an ‘Apple’ style mini keyboard and mouse. It would fit very nicely in an early years setting, and costs around £380. There are larger models with more powerful processors, but I think the basic version is fine for schools. With the release of Windows 7, a touch screen friendly operating system, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more touch screen technology in the near future.

(Posted by Fiona)

CEOP have posted a ‘Minute for Madeleine’ video on their website with the intention of persuading anyone who knows something to come forward. Here is the message from CEOP and link to the video:

‘Please take a minute of your time for Madeleine McCann and help spread this special message around the world. A new film has been released by the UK’s police organisation for child protection – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre – aimed at anyone close to the person who was involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. That person could be a relative, friend, work colleague or neighbour. Whoever they are, they have a secret that could reveal what happened to Madeleine.
In order to reach that person, CEOP are asking for the public’s help to share this message virally, via the internet, so that the message is so
widespread it becomes one click away to the person who knows something about Madeleine’s disappearance.  The message is then a constant
reminder that it is never too late to do the right thing, to stop keeping this secret  and pass this vital information to their local police.
You can view the full message which is part of a 60 second film at http://www.ceop.police.uk/

If you are online and part of an online community, you can help.  Post the link on your social networking site, email your friends and colleagues and  encourage them to share the film, blog and Tweet about the film and link to the website above.  Do anything you can to spread this message around the world.  The message is available at http://www.ceop.police.uk/ and is in seven different languages – English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.  This initiative is supported by Leicestershire Police, Interpol, Europol and international police agencies as well as specialist charities and NGO’s such as the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Missing Children Europe and the UK charity Parents and Abducted Children Together (PACT).

So, please help.  Take a minute for Madeleine and help share this message around the world.’

(Posted by Fiona)

I have just read an email announcement from CEOP asking all Think U Know trainers and ambassadors to raise awareness of an online message which will appear on the CEOP website tomorrow. The content remains a mystery, here is an extract from the email:

‘CEOP needs your help to spread a very important message.

On Tuesday 3 November, CEOP is going to be releasing a special online message and we want to ensure that as many people as possible see it. In fact, we want this message to be seen around the world!

The message will be a short piece of text and a link to a short film on ceop.police.uk.’

I’ll post the link and further details tomorrow.