Tag Galaxy is a different way of exploring a topic through seeing what related pictures people have put on the Flickr images site. Type any topic or concept in, and it will coat a globe with images, which you can rotate or click on to enlarge. A good IWB tool to get children thinking?
Tag Galaxy August 26, 2009
Etherpad August 26, 2009
Etherpad is a totally fantastic collaborative word processor. No logins required – simply click to start typing. Send the link to anybody else (by email, through a Learning Platform or simply by writing it up on the board) and they can start typing too, in real time, with each person’s additions in a different colour. At the end, export it into Word or a variety of other formats.
Vocaroo December 19, 2008
Vocaroo is a marvellous little online voice recorder program. That’s what it does: you record your voice, then you can send an email to your friends so they can listen to your voice. It’s also going to be ideal for Merlin or My First Place.
Myths and Legends October 13, 2008
Myths and Legends is another fantastic free resource for schools, provided by the South West Grid for Learning (but actually designed by their equivalents in the East of England). You can watch a range of myths produced by adults and children, with text to read, cartoons and some speech and animation. Then make your own with Story Creator 2: you can register your school, then all your children can have a go. It’s a great multimedia authoring tool in its own right as well as being superb for visual literacy. As an extra incentive, the excellent multimedia myths your children make can be published to the whole country!
Pixlr August 28, 2008
I never cease to be amazed at how brilliant some free stuff is out there. Pixlr is an online painting and photo editing tool. You just go to the page and start painting, or you open a picture from your computer and start editing. All the tools are the ones you will recognise, then you just go File: Save as usual, and save the new version back to your computer. It’s fast, it’s totally free, and you don’t need to register. Superb!
SwindonWiki launched August 27, 2008
Announcing a new site: SwindonWiki! This is to replace my previous links site, freeict.com. The purpose is for me to be able to share links and documents easily, as the previous site was, but also that any Swindon teacher or TA who wants to can contribute too. Please have a look, and if you would like to contribute, please contact Anna Fairhurst (afairhurst@swindon.gov.uk).
Self Review Framework March 25, 2008
The Self Review Framework (http://matrix.ncsl.org.uk) is an extremely useful tools for schools assessing their level of ICT in eight areas. It is also the application form for the ICT Mark. This page also contains a link to the Learning Platforms Functionality matrix (under ICT Infrastructure) which is designed to help schools identify their readiness for Learning Platforms.
SWGfL Media Gallery March 25, 2008
The South West Grid for Learning Media Gallery is a developing tool which aims to overcome the two problems with children using Google Images: breaking copyright and the possibility of coming across unsuitable images. The gallery contains pictures, sound and video, all of which can be saved into your favourites, and if you register you can upload your own content for children to use throughout the South West: by doing this, you are guaranteeing either that you hold the copyright or that you have the permission of the copyright holder for children to use it.
Online surveys March 21, 2008
Setting up an online survey allows data handling to stretch beyond the classroom. You or your children can set up surveys and questionnaires with a wide variety of questions and ask people to fill them in either by emailing them a link or by putting a link onto a web page (or blog/ wiki). The survey tool will then collate the results and present them to you in a variety of ways. http://www.surveymonkey.com/ is a good free example.
To complete my survey on the usefulness of different online tools, including the tools which will come within Merlin, please click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3WxA0fMl31Ibbruroi6nug_3d_3d
Del.icio.us March 21, 2008
Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. Once you have registered and downloaded a special toolbar to your computer, if you find a website you want to remember you can save the link to your own Del.icio.us bookmarks page. Anyone you give the address to can then look at your links, or you can add them to your Del.icio.us network so you can see each other’s links as they are changed. The uses in school are clear: create a set of web links to sites connected with your topics (or Maths games or whatever), give your Del.icio.us address to the children, and they will be able to access these sites easily with no typing of URLs anytime, anywhere.
