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Tag Archives: Education
Great Primary ICT ideas
Just sat in a little meeting about some ideas for tech in the PYP. These were some of the things that were shared:
Managing blogs:
- Schools need to set a minimum amount per week for teachers. The general consensus seemed to be at least once or twice a week. This way no one in the set was looking like an outlier (bad compared to others)
- Consent forms for student photos are needed if they are to be used on the blog.
- The idea of an after-school bloggers club came up. Some teachers were pursuing this.
Traffic light system:
- This is a neat and simple idea for students to self assess along with teachers:
- Red – Student cannot do it
- Yellow – Student can do with help
- Green – Student can do this by them self
Using PowerPoint in new ways
- Students take screen-shots using a program to show progress and incorporate it into the slide-show
- Students add arrows and text to explain what they have done
- Students use the PowerPoint presentation to explain what has been done to others
A resources that was mentioned to stay away from was:
- epals – it was mentioned to be rubbish – not updated and not accessible
Good resources were:
- itass
- textease
- iboard – only for foundation, year 1 and 2
- cricksoft
- spicynodes
- artisancam
- voki
- domo by goanimate
- 2simple to animate
- alice
- thinkquest
- assess ICT for assessment
- videopad for simple editing of video
What’s at Techex 2011
Intended for the average teacher, rather than just the nerds (like me). Ian Jukes will be the key-note speaker talking about learning as a digital native at TechEx, an exciting conference that I will unhappily not be able to attend. Ideas for the conference are listed below:
- The Facebook debate will be a drama contesting and supporting the notions behind this social network
- 21st Century Learning ideas – 2 minute ideas about lots and lots of different things – with free prizes from sponsors
- Big building with neat TedTalk – and discussions
- Flip Thinking- Let’s rethink the idea of homework – Are kids doing the hard stuff at home and the easy stuff in school?
- iPads and Slates – Sharing of ideas about them – Should 1:1s be switching to these?
- Hy Tek Software – for use with physical activities
- Blogs – Student blogs and links to the outside world – How are schools using these properly?
- One-Note – A Fantastic collaborative tool to be discussed
- The Perfect School and how it should look
- 3D World
- Moodle
- Intelligently Searching the Search Engines – Searching Twitter, Subscription Databases
John Tratner asked groups at the ISTEC meeting to ask for some of the things that we would like to see. We came up with these ideas:
- Inspirational Moodle stuff – courses or styles of courses (innovative ways to use it)
- Ways that Classroom teachers are using tech beyond the tech teacher
- How Chrome OS fits into education
- Google apps and Google Docs – How are they using it
- Bookmark synching methods
- Giver (for sharing files) – Linux-based
- Introducing Lino-It
- Online Storage – DropBox – Boxnet
- Using Freecorder – For downloading video, sound from computer and converting files
Virtual Learning Environment: Frog
The presentation today at the ISTEC meeting was about FROG Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Andrew Duckworth, from Regents International School in Bangkok mentioned that in comparison to StudyWiz it seemed to be a better environment, due to it being more open-sourced, allowing of more plug-ins.
What is Frog?
- An application development platform, with a learning platform built into it – (Scripting functionality)
- Customized for each school
- No programming involved. All GUI
- Primary and Secondary versions
- Delivered on a server within the school – helps with performance
- Accessible from home
- Social networking modules are incorporated into the interface – Feeds
- Uses SIMS
- Allows SCORM content
- Allows for differentiating using groups
- Froglite – runs in the background monitors and manages documents used through Frog
- Unpacks Zip files
- Allows for permissions
- Has an e-portfolio
- Resources can be turned into widgets – like Netvibes, iGoogle
- Markbook
- Email System
- Planner
- Works with pre-existing CMS (Course Management System)
- Allows access to proprietary programs through secure gateway (for example, students can use Adobe, Microsoft, Sims, etc. from home)
- Computer control within system – switch internet on and off – no screen monitoring though
- Staff notice system – implemented along with champions
- Live, online collaborative documents – form, page-building, diary systems
- Online detention system
- Work-spaces (Groups) are available to be created and managed – allowing groups to collaborate
- Skins (personalized) are available for users
- Mac-style (personal) dashboard
- Integration with Google Apps (Free for Education)
- Parent portal – graphing tools, attendance, behavior, assessment
- Language Character Sets available for database – front end support only in English
- Apps work well in Firefox and are being developed for iPhones and iPads
- Implementation take about 12-18 months
- 21,000-27,000 pounds initial cost (Servers included – Dell – 2 Terabyte/Mirrored Drive with backups)
- 5000-7000 recurring prices
- Financing available
- 700 student limit
Pretty cool all around. However, it is expensive for some schools.
The old adage, “You get what you pay for” seems to ring true with this system!
education | technology | ai & NOT A.I. | design 