Smart Notebook 10 October 13, 2008

The latest version of the Smartboard software is definitely worth downloading. There a number of new features and an enhanced gallery, but by far the best thing is the new Lesson Activity Toolkit. This enables you to create, really simply, little interactive games to use with your children. If you have at least one Smartboard in your school, why not put the software on all the children’s computers: it doesn’t have to be used on the board, and children can use the Lesson Activity Toolkit to make fun games for each other. Your technician can download the program from here.

Rick Riordan in Swindon! October 13, 2008

Rick Riordan, the author of the fantastic Percy Jackson series of books about the son of a Greek god living in modern America, visited Swindon on Friday 3rd October. He was interviewed by Year 6 pupils from Wroughton Junior School.  Click here to hear the interview, or read more about Rick Riordan and his books at www.rickriordan.com and www.percyjackson.co.uk.

Tux of Math Command October 7, 2008

Tux of Math Command (otherwise known as TuxMath) is another free program from the people who brought you TuxPaint and TuxType. It’s basically practice on the four operations, but a lot of fun as, when you’ve chosen your level, you type the correct answer and press Enter to shoot the question down in a Space Invaders-type game. The questions get faster and faster (but no more difficult), and if you are too slow they will melt a penguin’s igloo, causing a very cross penguin. It’s great fun, and a good thing to suggest parents download at home, though you may want to turn the sound off! Tux of Math Command can be downloaded from here.

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).

Yenka 3D Shapes August 27, 2008

 For quite some time, I’ve been a big fan of Crocodile Clips Elementary, the free electricity simulation. Now the company which does this, Yenka, has produced a Maths version, Yenka 3D Shapes. You can combine 2D Shapes, create nets, drag the sides of the nets to make 3D shapes (and play this backwards and forwards as a film) and stack shapes. It’s very appealing and easy to use. They have been cunning and stopped the free version from having rectangles, though you can get round this by pulling a triangular pyramid net apart. However, if you like it, the full version is only £200 for a site licence for schools with under 600 pupils, including free home access. To install, you will need to download a basic Yenka program from here and then download the 3D Shapes bit from here.

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.