ICT News

Dear Colleagues,

 

Following the theft of my laptop (in April!) I’ve finally managed to get my ICT subject leaders mailing list up and running again. If you would rather not receive any emails please let me know and I’ll remove your name from the list. A few things to round up news since then.

 

Goodbye to Becta!

Becta, the government’s ICT agency is to be closed down in November. Essentially BECTA played a critical back of house in developing standards for learning platforms, raising the safety agenda, pushing for universal access and of course establishing the ICT mark and self review framework. Right now we don’t know what will become of the content of the BECTA website, whether the targets for parental reporting that they set still apply. It is possible that the ICT Mark and self review  framework will be taken over by an alternative not for profit organisation but we will have to wait and see.

 

Goodbye to digital brain!!

At the end of July the Digitalbrain system will be switched off for good. It has been around since 2002 and could have been good if only it had been reliable and fast. If you have content stored on the system then now is the time to download it and save it before it goes to the data store in the sky!

 

Fronter

Exit DB and enter London MLE. We now have 46 primary schools up and running and many of the rest are due to start in the autumn term. The system is a huge leap forward from DB in speed, reliability and ease of use and it has been amazing to see its use rocket as more and more children and staff start accessing the system to extend learning beyond the classroom. Perhaps the days of the Factory school really are over?? Have a look at this clip by Ken Robinson http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html 

 

LGfL

Look out for the arrival of Busy Things on the LGfL (www.lgfl.net ). This fantastic collection of online creative activities aimed at N and R will be available in the next month and is likely to be a big hit with FS teachers. I’ve already road tested it with my 3yo daughter and she loved it too. Also don’t forget about the amazing collection of other stuff that’s up there Iboard is growing and growing and have you seen Magic School? Also coming soon are a set of creative tools for KS1 that look a little similar to the 2Simple Infant video toolkit. Ofcourse because they are online children can access them from home with an MLE login.

 

CLC loans

The new loan library for ICT equipment is up and running. It sits in a little room at the PDC and contains laptops, digital cameras, video cameras, Lego control equipment and Easispeak sound recorders and 2 Magic Planets! There is also support available in the shape of three leading ICT teachers that are able to come to your school and help get your children making films, computer games, radio programmes. To benefit from it contact Paul Easterbrook.

                                                                                          

ActivExpression

LEB (a supplier of Promethean products) are running a pilot project that will provide schools with access to Activexpression handset to use in school for a fixed period at no cost. Activexpression is the world’s first learner response system with advanced sentence and character texting options. Students can express themselves through text, numbers, like scales and more—allowing them to respond to questions in the dynamic way that they think.  It also, supports the self-paced learning, whereby, pupils can respond to answers at their own pace, allowing the teacher to intervene  immediately during the lesson to each child’s needs. If you are interested in trialing a set of Activexpression tablets for a couple of months, together with training on using them, at no cost to your school let me know. For more information on ActivExpression visit the Promethean website.

 

ICT Subject Leaders’ Meeting

We are holding an ICT subject leaders meeting on 15^th June (either 1.30-3.30 or 4.00-5.15) Please do come along. If you haven’t been before you’ll find it a great opportunity to meet other subject leaders, find out about stuff that’s going on around ICT and ask us questions.

 

I think that’s it for now.

 

Dan Warner