Primary Bits and Bytes

(Posted by Dughall)

Growing Greener Futures Conference
Holy Trinity Rosehill C.E. Primary School (Stockton on Tees)
Friday 22nd October 2010

Just to let you know about an exciting forthcoming conference that promises to combine two of my passions: outdoor learning and technology. The conference promises to:

explore outdoor learning through the themes of gardening, conservation, cooking, sustainability and digital technologies. Delegates will have the opportunity to experience keynote presentations from nationally recognised experts in the field as well as participate in hands-on and thought-provoking workshops throughout the day.

Amongst the stellar lineup of contributors are:

•  internationally renowned learning technologist Ollie Bray who will be presenting a keynote on ‘Outdoor Learning and Digital Technologies’.
•  Andy Black  an inspirational educator whose company I had the pleasure of at the LOB10 conference earlier this year.
• Bill Lord a passionate advocate of the written word and Teachmeet regular. His presentations have the air of stand-up comedy with a serious educational edge.
• Steve Bunce, the ‘Wit of Twitter’ will provide a session on outdoor learning and video games.
• Kirklees’ very own Jo Liversidge who is a shining light of Forest School philosophy and a keen advocate of new technologies.

Full details and booking details can be found on the conference website.

(Posted by Fiona)

I received an email from our Becta Regional Consultant on Friday, outlining the timetable for shutdown of the Becta website. Here is how it will happen:

‘This will be a staged process, involving the movement from the full web functionality, through an interim “holding site” stage to the final closure of all online activity in March 2011.  Specifically, I would like to draw your attention that the ordering of publications (not downloads) will cease being available from 22nd October, and this will be flagged on the site from October 1st.’

If you require any  hard-copy versions of Becta publications,  you need to visit the site before October 22nd to order them. Printable downloads will still be available after this date.

(Posted by Fiona)

I spotted this link on the Ictopus blog, the good folks at Primary Technology have compiled a handy list of useful Web 2.0 tools for education: http://primaryschoolict.com/atoz.php?letter=a

They are organised as an A to Z, with brief descriptions of each tool. There is also a search, so if you want a specific tool such as free mind mapping for example, you can find one quickly. This is an excellent starting point for teachers wanting to explore free online tools.

(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