Butterfly42

There were q lot of comment amongst my blogging community about the Panorama programme – One click from danger, Doug Ewan and John being just two. While there was approval some for the sensible suggestions to keep children safe the feeling was it was over sensational. playing on parents fear of the unknown (web 2.0) and would discourage parents, and schools, from allowing their children access to web 2.00 and all it can offer for learning. Sean the Bass Player , student 2.0 hoping to be studying at School 2.0, also responded from his point of view and took the opportunity to share his tips for internet safety , which one or two schools have then shared with their pupils. He often comments on the constraints the school/LA network protection put on his learning. Here we have all generations in agreement, working and learning together.

Here are a few of the places I stopped by... Kowari A Learning Platform for Early Years/ Primary pupils and their community. Noisy Things an application to complement all the other noise making things in an early years setting. WriteOnline from Cricksoft - Work online with all the facilities of Wordbar and Clicker. See what Merlin John has to say about it. TTS as ever have plenty of useful early years resources.. I watched people making big choices about buying controllable toys for progression in control and for speaking and listening.. Their talk time range, including recordable postcards, talking photo album and Easy Speak continues to excite people.. Honeycomb an online personal space that enables collaborative and creative learning using initially blog and wiki formats. Reactable project - Future Lab and University of Barcelona. I spent some time ‘composing’ with two members of the project Microsoft Surface computing I tried to avoid, ...

So who did I meet or bump into for the first time at BETT, putting a body to the blog or public face Jim Knight MP with Doug Brown DCSF walked into at the Hilton Olympia Wednesday morning after his announcements at BETT. Bob Geldof in the RM conference room, Olympia 2, looking as tousled as ever and speaking informally to a small group in his hallmark, strident tones. As I went around the corner of the BBC stand in the Grand Hall Olympia there was a lone figure with a familiar face using a mobile and as I passed close by the voice said ’Hi this is Bill Turnbull '. Walking across the bar with full glasses one night I stopped to talk to a very suprised Tim Rylands Blogger and supporter, facilitator and mentor to creativity in schools based originally on his use of Myst While trying to charge my minibook on Friday night..... Paul Harrington school blogger extraordinaire (with his class), who has actually just left the classroom.. but not I suspect forgotten. Ewan McGregor ...

........an informal gathering of those curious about technologies and teaching Before my battery runs out .. I've arrived and it's underway and the first 7 minute speaker has started and I've got vouchers to spend at the bar. (note try and remember to keep Asus charged and not work to hard with it in future) A quick succession of first speakers sticking to their 7 minute allotted time was followed by a drink and socialising session where lots of people played with the Asus brought by RM for their informal, non-sales, session about them. The break meant I was able to chat to old friend and with people from various parts of the world mainly GB who had been at BETT. The next set of presentation included some of the Nano presentations including Doug Dickinson's. So I was able to take the photos of him for the next ICTOPUS publication. But only just.. he moved so quickly around the stage with his cards! An approach that got a good response from the cheering audie...

HI I'm off to BETT ( not Tibet, as someone once misheard me with an admiring glance, or even to bed!) BETT 2008 "the worlds largest educational technology event” opens this week at the London Olympia on Wednesday 9th January for 4 days and Education practitioners from all over the world make their way there to look at what’s on offer in educational ICT , what's new, what's good and what's to buy. Providers of hardware, software, training and advice, government agencies and national institutions are there offer and sell advice in a variety of ways. Watch out also for government announcements about funding and policy, It's a vibrant, heady, exciting mix.. not to be missed. I'll be there with a pearlised, digital bombshell in my handbag to share what I find. More about the contents of my handbag later.

Schools are developing their own ways of communicating with parents electronically. For those parents with Internet access at home, ( and this could be every parent soon if Jim Knights, Minister for Schools gets his way ) at work or on the go this offers a better bet than remembering to dig around in the bottom of the school bag every day.. although I suspect that this still will not guarantee every parent gets the right information at the right time. St Vincents Catholic Primary have a separate blog for each class which lays out clearly what the terms themes with objects etc and links for parents to use at home. Then there are weekly updates and reminders. The Foundation stage blog gives a good idea what its about. It's lively, informative and gives lots of websites for parents to share with the children related to this terms work. The link to each of the other class blogs is at the bottom of their class page.

Looking for opportunities to enable your pupils to engage in safe social networking, while having the opportunity to learn about personal safety on the internet and reap the benefits. Take a look at Intuitive Media an award winning site that provides protected social networking and learning spaces - real online communities where children can learn, be creative, communicate and collaborate with other children of all backgrounds and cultures and make their voices heard in a protected environment. They can work from home, school or where ever they are with the important people, teachers, family friends securely. For Primary look at SuperClubsPLUS "a Protected Online Learning Community where 6-12 year olds can meet friends across the UK and overseas, be creative, have fun and learn ICT, Literacy and Citizenship together. Professional mediators are on hand to protect and inspire the children to take their learning home.” And at SchoolNet ...

The BBC reports that "Parents are being urged to keep Christmas gadgets out of the classroom by England's Children's Minister Kevin Brennan" and further comments are made by the General Secretary of NASUWT Chris Keates including " Teachers would be grateful if pupils just brought a pen." Take a look at the report What value does this put on the digital technology that excites, engages and empowers young people, permeates their lives and the creativity that it enables. The message seems that pen and paper is the way we do it. When you get to school you can stop thinking about these things and use a pen. Education is about using pens and writing things down!