Butterfly42

There's a tingle around ictopus , a frisson of excitement, a quivering of anticipation as the launch time draws near. ictopus a free support service for primary education will be launched tomorrow, 1st September when the 1597, yes 1597 already registered users receive an alert to tell them that the first issue of the weekly magazine, Sharing Good Practice, is available to view online or to download as a printable file. Followed on Tuesday by the lessons2go service, lesson plans providing ideas for the use of ICT across the primary and early years curriculum. And so it will go on, ideas and support for primary teachers to embed ICT in learning and teaching. If you've not registered yet give it a go.. its pedigree is excellent.

We have come along way since Listen with Mother and Watch with Mother both aimed providing edutainment for the child at home in a time when social contact with other children under five relied on parent connections and preschool groups were not the norm. The titles set the scene these were short 15 minute programmes to be shared with ‘mother’. Now children 0-5 years have range of pre school opportunities to socialise and learn as well as having many television programmes to watch through out the day when at home. But there is no guarantee that anyone sits and watches with the child. Most of the programmes have associated web sites and these can provide a good opportunity for practitioners in an early years setting to work with groups of children around the site to build on home television watching. ‘In the Night Garden’ is a gentle little CBeebies programme for 1-4 year olds, set in a real garden with some main toy characters, having predictably unusual names that allow for making go

Seems I'm not the only one who had connectivity troubles last week....... wonder if there is a connection http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6954675.stm

So I lost connectivity.. one moment I could send and receive e-mails, read and write blogs, Skype and video conference, research how much local dry cleaners charged for a large pair of curtains and when NCET became Becta, send flowers to my Facebook friends read the latest news from the BBC or Times online, transfer money from one bank account to another, create and download podcasts, now the only way for me to keep up with favourite Radio 4 programmes…listen to them at the gym, buy train tickets for the next month, upload the holiday photos to flikr , upload next terms work for students and share my bookmarks, amongst other things… and the next moment I couldn’t. There was a vast electronic silence which I could not make disappear.. my office once the hub of my digital world closed in upon itself, died slightly, was not so welcoming. Whilst the telephone call centre responds quickly and makes every effort there is a tension in troubleshooting entirely on the phone.

…… good reasons for having a blog from the children of Hope C E Primary, a small school in Shropshire.. It’s a blog I keep an eye on as children and staff communicate the life of this active school well.. Thanks to Ewan McIntosh for this link to the Shropshire blog

Planet Hilton came into my sights this week- photos of celebrities are altered so they look like ‘normal people’ – poorly dressed, flabby consumers of a fast food and generally well worn. Start with a well known British couple . Cruel…. but a really good illustration of how easily images can be changed to create a negative impression. An interesting follow up to using these pictures with children would be to create a video showing their school in really bad light. By the way If anyone knows of someone who can do the reverse.. let me know…