Butterfly42

It's time to move on

2009-02-28T22:10:00.006Z

Yes it's time to move on from my first blog home here, to the new improved detached version of Butterfly42.This blog will sit here for sometime with a link to it from the new version so all is not lost.But I'm now established in my new detached home, with my own address from where I'll continue to butterfly about life the universe and everything trying not to cause chaos but possibly finding

The snow walk

2009-02-08T21:45:00.009Z

Saturday was to be the day for setting up a new blog, but the prospect of a walk in the park , snow still on the ground and sun bright, was tempting.I asked my fellow tweeters what I should do first, walk in the park or work on the blog? And the unanimous response of those around was to walk first and then set up blog and write about it. So no couch potatoes there.Sadly once we were out

Open EYE

2009-01-29T07:52:00.002Z

This morning I read Open EYE's Submission to the National Union of Teachers' Consultation on the Early Years. Open EYE are continuing their campaign for developmentally appropriate early years 'education' which they claim the new early years foundation stage requirements are not in sympathy with. The paragraph on ICT, focused on the dangers of 'the screen' referred texts in support and I must

Through stories

2009-01-25T12:35:00.002Z

A tale of two cities….a digital fairytale for the 21st century « Mimanifesto - Jaye’s weblogThrough stories, fantasy, science fiction, parable, the word is spread. Round campfire, cup of tea, glass of wine, computer the people listen. The names are changed, the place elsewhere. The truth is out, the word is spread and people arm themselves. Things change.Listen to a story

BETT 2009

2009-01-14T00:28:00.002Z

It's that time again, BETT "The worlds largest education technology event" is held annually at Olympia, London, will indeed attract the world. Always an exciting and interesting event it's where new educational technology is showcased and established resources revisited, experiences shared and ideas put forward through seminars and presentations and and often significantly the place where the

8 years ago

2008-12-31T17:59:00.003Z

While collecting the Christmas decorations from the loft I ‘fell over’ a box of old Child and Junior Education magazines going back to 2000. At one time the stalwart support for most teachers and probably still are, there were very few classrooms that did not have centre page picture from those or their sister magazines ‘Projects’ and ‘Art and Craft’ on display. Up to a couple of years ago I

Tracking Santa

2008-12-16T07:54:00.003Z

For all children, everywhere on Christmas Eve, 'Track Santa' with the aid of Norad ( bi-national US-Canadian military organisation responsible for the aerospace and maritime defence of the United Sates and Canada) who have been doing it for over 50 years now, using the technology of the time.This year Santa can be followed using Google Earth, downloaded to computer or mobile phone, and

Rose Review

2008-12-08T01:16:00.005Z

Sir Jim Rose's interim report - the Primary Curriculum Review - is due on Monday. and already the press are talking about it. While the the BBC spends time talking about summer born children and the opportunity for part time starts for these children. The Times online has two articles mainly about the curriculum changes.Under the expansive headline "Traditional subjects go in Schools

Advent Calendars are not just for children

2008-11-30T23:22:00.010Z

For communities celebrating Christmas the first of December is the time to start counting down to Christmas day, either to contain excitement or to raise it according to your perspective. Schools have always harnessed them for learning through making or using.Where once we constructed them with card and pictures cut from last years Christmas cards , now we have the internet and the opportunity to

Early Years Foundation stage

2008-11-29T19:36:00.003Z

Received an e-mail from 10 Downing Street today.. I'm quite used to digital communications from there as they are also one of my Twitter friends. The message pointed to the government's response to the EYFS petition.Details of Petition: “We recognise the government’s good intentions in its early-years policy-making, but are concerned about the EYFS legislation, which comes into force in England

Little Voices, Little Scholars

2008-11-25T10:52:00.003Z

I like to keep in touch with what's happening in the early years. One of the ways I have of getting a global view is to follow early years blogs. I follow quite a few occasionally leaving messages of encouragement and will share them over the weeks.Here is Little Voices, little Scholars. Little Voices, Little Scholars via kwout"They have had a focus on Speaking and listening, as well as

National Strategies new site

2008-11-17T07:10:00.002Z

The National Strategies via kwoutThe National Strategies have a new front page, still a beta but worth trying out. It’s bright, spacious and colour coded and so far appears to work effectively, one click on the Primary Framework link under the purple Primary banner and it’s straight through to links to the Frameworks and onwards as needed. Really useful is the addition of third party bookmarking

Cuddly Pinky directions

2008-10-13T16:36:00.004+01:00

Good to see Solent University addressing the needs of all students, after all not everyone can read a plan well some need all the visual clues possible. Take a look their novel and amusing but well thought out take on a route finderI wonder if the children would be able to write a description of the routes from this video or make a plan.... or even make their own for new children? (

Happy Birthday Paddington Bear

2008-10-13T08:55:00.004+01:00

Its the big 5 0 for Paddington today"50 Years via kwoutHe's having a tour of the London in a Black Cab to celebrate and there's a photo competition for those lucky enough to see him, (see the site)Think of the number of children who have laughed about and enjoyed his stories over the years, he was certainly a regular visitor to my classroom over the years,and how many of them knew where Peru was

WWI experiences of an English Soldier

2008-10-02T22:52:00.005+01:00

"WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier via kwoutI am beginning to visit the wonderful blog WWI Experience of an English Soldier with trepidation.We do not yet know if he survives the war, this has not been revealed but the war is coming to an end.......

ICT, Display and Textease

2008-09-23T11:35:00.004+01:00

Having played about with Blockposter I then went to Textease Studio CT which, if you have it, allows for the creation of posters equally simply and quickly Take a Print Screen of the map and paste into Studio, select the image and use the blue tags to crop it . Go to the Tools menu Page tab, where paper size A4 is selected and select Poster Modechange to Landscape change the size of paper to

ICT, Display and Blockposter

2008-09-23T11:10:00.005+01:00

I’ve only just seen Blockposters on the Ictopus news blog post of 7th September but it looked like a way of supporting a group of people in using ICT as part of a school visit to a river! (It’s not the only way we’ll use ICT ) Using this we could make a very large poster of the route of their walk and have it as the background to a wall display.I hope too that it will become one of those

This week .....

2008-09-08T09:59:00.006+01:00

... there is great excitement in the world of science as after Wednesday there will be a whole new set of knowledge and understandings about the building blocks of the universe ( and I'll be really surprised if the answer is 42) when the Large Hadron Collider is finally switched on.CERN - The Large Hadron Collider via kwoutBBC Radio 4 are having a 'Big Bang day' , the web site has Professor

Next week will ......

2008-09-08T09:12:00.002+01:00

....... be different .. lots of other new beginnings .There’s a group of students getting excited about beginning their Initial Teacher Training with the London Diocesan Board on Monday and I’ll be joining them on Thursday for a day focused on e-learning so that should be fun …........that's of course if there is a Thursday :-)

That was the....

2008-09-08T08:29:00.005+01:00

.....week in which Google launched it's new browser Chrome.Its new, sleek, innovative, fast, allows many more web pages to be open at once and doesn't go into a complete crash when one of them has troubles. It's built for today’s e-users.I know this because I’ve read the comic book explanations, downloaded and installed it and then like many many others failed to read the licence I agreed

That was the week..

2008-09-08T08:14:00.006+01:00

... that Wales, following overall European trends in early education began the phased introduction it's new foundation stage with huge emphasis on play and outdoor learning.The BBC News reports the education minister Jane Hutt: "The foundation phase takes a different approach to learning and a key feature is using the outdoors to encourage children to learn about conservation and the

That was the week that was ...

2008-09-08T07:38:00.009+01:00

.....over but not forgotten.September 1st 2008 and the new Early Years Foundation Stage came into force for ALL nursery schools, playgroups and registered child minders, despite the concerns of many and best efforts of the Openeye campaign and it’s many supporters some seen commenting below.An article in the Telegraph On Line answered a question for me, What about the Montessori and

A Million Futures

2008-08-15T11:28:00.011+01:00

Million Futures via kwoutI’m flying virtual paper aeroplanes, setting down my thoughts on six questions and casting them into a blue almost cloudless, virtual sky for others to read.It’s the Million Futures survey setting out to find out what we, the people, think are the biggest challenges for education in the future and to then use the paper aeroplane notes when considering that future of

2008-08-13T17:48:00.002+01:00

For few years now when talking to early years practitioners and school leaders about ICT in the early years and the entitlement of children learn in an environment that reflects and builds on their real life experiences I’ve talked about the normality of the ICT the children are immediately immersed in.I’ve given the examples of the birth photo distributed by mobile phone, the web cam video

What's your data projector displaying?

2008-07-16T10:15:00.008+01:00

Image by Linda HartleyI found this image in Linda Hartley's Classroom Displays group on flickr, it's created using taggalaxy a cool little resource to create a globe of tagged images from flickr.For example use the tag 'smile' to create a globe of smiles as a starter for work on feelings and leave it on display while the children produce art work.Any appropriate tag could be used to provide

A new review

2008-07-16T08:33:00.003+01:00

For some this is a hopeful sign. From ‘the man of the moment’ Sir Jim Rose, already leading the government’s independent Review of the Primary Curriculum, (not to be confused at all with the Cambridge University, independent, wide ranging,’ Primary Review of the condition and future of primary education in England’) and reviewing some key Early Years Foundation Stage Goals as well as

Time and tide.....

2008-07-15T07:59:00.002+01:00

......but it can be fun watching it happen with these quirky on-line clocks Analogy and Clock. Analogy in particular is quite beautiful.Learning about time can be enjoyable and both of these could help children in understanding the passage of time.

Terrible two's

2008-07-01T11:01:00.003+01:00

Got one in the house at the moment!!!!! So the poem in the previous blog post was very relevant. But the other thing I found in Andy Walker's Literature review in the section on learning and the brain was the following:- “All parents can relate to when their children went through the ‘terrible twos’.Understanding the developmental processes occurring in a typical 2 year olds brain enables

The things we steal from children

2008-07-01T10:40:00.002+01:00

I came across this poem in a profession online forum. It's from the Appendix of a Sabbatical Report looking at personalised learning by Andy Walker Principal of a college in New ZealandI've put it here not only to share, I think it's worth sharing ( and I'm sure lots of other people will be doing that) but also as a checklist for me, to keep me on track.The Things We Steal From ChildrenBy Dr John

Lake life for inspiration

2008-06-25T11:46:00.002+01:00

An acrobatic version of Swan Lake with a little licence. The first section 'dance of the frogs would be great to show during a 'frog' topic for any age.Such energy and not at all sissy. Stimulation for their own dance of the frogs, but on two legs of course

Wordle

2008-06-22T17:22:00.010+01:00

There's been lots of twittering and blogging from people over the last week about Wordle a word cloud generator, Joe Dale and Doug Dickinson included, so I thought I would add my fivepenny worth.Wordle says about itself "It is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can

Teaching strategies

2008-06-16T11:19:00.006+01:00

This term I'm visiting tutor for a small group of students on their final teaching experience and for the moment I know that the standard Q25 says 'trainees can teach lessons and sequences of lessons .......using a range of teaching strategies and resources ....So when I read Nick Peachy' blog I could immediately see that the teaching strategies used in his video clips were not in the

StoryPhones

2008-06-16T10:27:00.004+01:00

Both Simon Mills and ictopus have blogged last week about StoryPhones a really good looking resource aimed at the Early Years, although I would imagine lots of other people could use them. The site tells us that "StoryPhones are a complete wireless audio system that allows children to access audio resources and to record their own stories, songs and thoughts. StoryPhones can be used to set up

Douglas Adams and Deadlines

2008-06-11T22:14:00.004+01:00

I’m thinking of Douglas Adams . On one occasion he said ‘I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by’ and here in my office I hear the beginnings of a small whoosh. I remember reading in The Salmon of Doubt.. I’m sure it was the Salmon of Doubt but I can’t check because I lent it to someone and I can’t remember who… that once his publisher was so desperate for

MUTO

2008-06-06T10:03:00.001+01:00

Looking again at some past blog posts yesterday I saw Ian Usher’s link to MUTO, a wall painted animation by Blu something I had first seen on The Carrot Revolution one of my favourite blogs Here it is.. enjoy and admire MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Tutpup for maths.. OK

2008-06-06T09:42:00.001+01:00

One of the PGCE primary students I’m visiting this term had a new maths site in her planning as an extension activity. She was enthusiastic about it as it provided calculation practice using the four rules at different levels with the added bonus of competing against children all over the world. The name Tutpup was immediately familiar I’m sure I’d read about it only this week. Looking

Dodgy computers

2008-05-16T10:20:00.002+01:00

Yes ...I know.. and understand that there are few equalities in the world, that life is not on the whole fair.. but there are some good bits, that ICT is not all about computers... .... but why oh why do I regularly find that the foundation stage in a school has the oldest dodgiest computer in the school....Answers on the proverbial postcard please

Hectors World

2008-05-13T12:40:00.006+01:00

I had an e-mail last Thursday announcing the launch by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of childrenHectors World a series of animations aimed at 5-11 year olds has been launched on thinkuknow. From a successful New Zealand project they are to

What's happening in the early years?

2008-05-05T22:56:00.002+01:00

I've seen some really good practice using ICT in the early years in the last few years (more about this later) and I'm interested to know what is happening in the UK and globally. So ....What ICT happens in your foundation stage (Nursery/pre school/children’s centre/ Kindergarten ) What are the technology experiences? What do you see on the computers? What do the practitioners use when

Be prepared...

2008-05-05T07:18:00.015+01:00

Not only the motto of the scouts but also of the successful early years practitioner. Catalysts for early learning are often spontaneous, unexpected events which the practitioner is able to take advantage of. A spill of paint is not a problem but an opportunity to explore liquids flowing or the best thing to clean it up.ICT has added a new dimension ...but like everything else in the

Squirrel Nutkin is back

2008-05-01T08:26:00.008+01:00

Yes, the school holiday is almost over in New Zealand and Squirrel Nutkin is back from his holiday with Tania and using his blog to tell everyone all about it including the children of Manaia Kindergarten New Zealand where he's based and their friends in Spring Trails Kindergarten in Illinois who actually sent him to New Zealand in the first place. (The children in America were talking about

Geography in schools..

2008-04-29T20:13:00.002+01:00

.. is it valued, is it getting rarer, is it being taught indirectly? ( the same could be asked of history) Here's a site for those interested in Giving Geography It's Place.Click on the chocolate image to get to the education area and the Chocolate transition project for Y 6.

Emerging Technologies

2008-04-02T09:55:00.000+01:00

Becta’s Emerging Technologies for Learning: volume 3 (2008). is outIt seems it’s becoming an annual publication with volume 1 in 2006 and volume 2 in 2007 As before there are articles from national and international thinkers and practitionersEach publication features articles on the very new and emerging technologies which may have an impact on life and learning. If you haven't yet looked

What day is it???

2008-04-01T17:48:00.002+01:00

I've been trying out the BBC home page recently..There's always a picture associated with something that is about to be on television. In retrospect I remember this mornings picture of icy wastes and the heading "find out more about flying penguins" as I did my usual Google search for information needed without actually registering what it was about. So it wasn't until this evening after a

The Byron Review

2008-03-27T13:44:00.004Z

It cannot have escaped your notice that here in England the Byron Review looking at the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the Internet and in video games is now published. At last after lots of publicity this morning by those who have read it and discussion and speculation based on their comments the Review is finally on line (midday) for all

One for Prince Charles ?

2008-03-26T11:00:00.004Z

As I am twittering and twhirling away here while glancing through some infrequently read blogs from around the globe and I've found a good reason to Twitter - I can listen to my plants!!!! Must tell Prince Charles! ( for non UK royalist he has been known to mention talking to his plants.. but then who doesn't?)However, is it real or is it a spoof.. will it be another example to use when

2008-03-26T10:26:00.003Z

It was indeed a beautiful day in Derbyshire with plenty of enthusiasm from the teachers about getting out their mobile technologies and having a go.The use of mobiles phones is always something to talk about and different schools have different approaches to mobile phones in school but they are useful tools and won't go away.As well as the Spinvox phone to blog entries below we also did

Speaking Freely

2008-03-25T13:30:00.002Z

As the discussions developed one teacher commented " ICT it's fantastic way of putting the world at your finger tips. As long as you've got knack (and the kit)." :-)spoken through SpinVox

Speaking Freely

2008-03-25T10:29:00.005Z

one delegate alredy has soem experience of using PDA with more able children.."Hi. The children find the PDA is very interesting. They learn quicker than adults, at what they achieve."spoken through SpinVox

Speaking Freely

2008-03-25T10:03:00.003Z

"It's a beautiful day here in Derbyshire at the Hayes Conference Centre, where I'm about to meet a group of teachers, here for a teacher day. They are really very interested in PDA's and how they can support learning and raise attainment.I'm waiting very excitedly for them to come through the door any minute now."spoken through SpinVox

Arthur C. Clarke

2008-03-19T09:12:00.004Z

Today we hear of the death of Arthur C. Clarke and within a very short time people were recognising and mourning his passing.Like many of us I’m sure, it was through reading Arthur C Clarke ( and others of his time) from an early age that I knew about the power of information and communications technology before I experienced it and had my hands on it... What was your favourite book/story?

We're Going on a Bear Hunt with Micheal Rosen

2008-03-17T15:51:00.003Z

I have to share this.... Youtube has a video of Micheal Rosen acting the story of Going on a Bear Hunt.It is, as you would expect lively, exciting and inspirational and holds attention till the end. I had not come across this before until a PGCE student shared this after she had observed her mentor using it.The digital native who visits me occasional ( 22 months) stopped trying to wrestle me

Children from Blackburn

2008-03-13T13:46:00.006Z

They arrived.....nine children and three adults and lots of things to talk about. The children bright, shiny and confident talked us through , with a little help from the adults, the ICT use in their school and illustrated the independence of use through out. There was much to tell and show, heres a flavour.We heard about ICT in school assembly, two large screens in the hall and in-school

Celebrating Success in Birmingham

2008-03-13T10:00:00.010Z

It's the final SLICT conference in Birmingham, Celebrating Success In his keynote Chris Poole BSF Business Manager at Microsoft is stressing to us that it's not about the technology but the experience. He is also wondering out loud about ICT transforming learning. His initial hypotheses is that true transformation is not happening in schools and this partly about the fear of schools loosing

Speaking Freely

2008-03-09T13:54:00.004Z

By an assistant in a bookshop on a Sunday morning, when asked were a particular picture book title might be on these shelves......"go down to the desk and somebody will find it on the computer for you. "spoken through SpinVox

Speaking Freely

2008-03-09T13:49:00.004Z

Heard in a book shop on Sunday morning. "We've got plenty of video games, we're here to look at books."Heard in a book shop on Sunday morning. "We've got video games at home but I want you to be reading books."spoken through SpinVox

World War I blog

2008-03-05T12:54:00.002Z

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier - real primary source historical information about WWI. "This blog is made up of transcripts of Harry Lamin's letters from the first World War. The letters will be posted exactly 90 years after they were written. To find out Harry's fate, follow the blog!"

Singing Ringing Tree

2008-03-03T08:07:00.002Z

Wonderful .... I want to be there now!The Singing Ringing Tree

World Maths Day

2008-02-27T23:28:00.002Z

Anybody taking part in World Maths Day on 5th March?

Creativity and learning

2008-02-24T09:11:00.004Z

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”Pablo Picasso Quoted by Sir Ken Robinson in his well viewed TED presentation ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity ‘ A quote of the day for Daniel Pinkfrom Iowa winner Mike Huckabee on the American Presidential trail :"Education is only a true education if we're developing both the left and right brain of the student .

What it's all about.. every child....

2008-02-19T09:23:00.006Z

Take a look at this entry in the Learning is Messy blog from Brian Crosby, a fifth grade teacher at Agnes Risley School in Sparks, Nevada. The video tells it all, there's a link in the text or click on the first picture.Of course in this country, England, many local networks 'discourage' schools from using Skype.Skype social networking software for making free voice, text and video calls

BBC resources

2008-02-18T08:25:00.002Z

I was reminded about two BBC resources last week. Working with a group of headteachers and senior management teams ‘CBBC Me and My Movies’ was mentioned in passing as of value for their children . Following this, while catching up on my community I saw that Ewan McIntosh had it as one of his links “CBBC me and my movie is a unique film-making initiative inspiring and enabling children to make

Text to speech

2008-02-18T07:33:00.006Z

So while I'm busy and triumphantly mastering the use of my mobile to make text entries to Butterfly42 Nokia have a text-to-speech reading software for the visually impaired. Photograph the object in front of you and hear what it is..... coffee or sugar or soap powder.Slightly more expensive that Talking Tins.!

Speaking Freely

2008-02-17T22:41:00.002Z

"Well this is my 1st attempt at putting an entry into my blog via the mobile phone using SpinVox. If it works it means I can blog from anywhere using my mobile phone.Thanks to Doug Dickinson for pointing the way to this and for helping out with those little bits that weren't immediately obvious." I've edited this slightly as there were one or two words missed out but so far so good.spoken

I wasn't really looking for this...

2008-02-15T16:19:00.003Z

.. but having found it I'd like to share it.Make your own Jackson Pollock It a simple little activity providing an opportunity for a group of children to try out ideas around a large shared screen, an IWB, tablet passed from one to another or a plasma touch screen in the context of looking at different styles. Press space bar to clear the screen and Alt 'F' followed by 'V' to go straight

Agreement 2.0

2008-01-15T15:50:00.001Z

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

BETT 2008 (2)

2008-01-13T15:34:00.000Z

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

Hello and goodbye at BETT

2008-01-13T13:45:00.001Z

So who did I meet or bump into for the first time at BETT, putting a body to the blog or public faceJim 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

TeachmeetBETT08.......

2008-01-11T18:07:00.001Z

........an informal gathering of those curious about technologies and teachingBefore 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

BETT 2008

2008-01-09T17:16:00.000Z

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

Communicating with parents...

2008-01-06T22:06:00.000Z

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

Secure social networking

2008-01-06T10:31:00.000Z

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

What sort of message does this give...

2008-01-03T20:47:00.001Z

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 reportWhat value does this put on the digital technology that excites, engages and

Netscape - hey ho...

2007-12-30T22:44:00.000Z

In his book The World is Flat, globalisation in the 21st Century – 2007 Thomas Friedman identifies 10 events/ innovations as world flatteners. The second of these is about to be discontinued. From February this year Netscape Navigator will no longer be developed or supported.Apparently over the last few years most of the people working on Netscape have moved over to Mozilla and are working

Life, times and monitors

2007-12-05T21:32:00.000Z

Such a relief .. When one of the two main working monitors died recently it was a blow.. it’s amazing how accustomed you get to using two monitors, moving pages from one to another, copying and pasting from one documents to another so easily, having lots of documents up to read at once, the freedom a large work space gives. So there I was shackled to one monitor with pages and working

The online safety debate rumbles on

2007-12-02T09:06:00.000Z

Hot on the heels of last weekend’s guidance and/or warnings about using social networking sites comes this coup by facebook users united in cyberspace. Power to the people.As a side issue during the week Bobbie Johnson in the Guardian highlighted Online investigations into job candidates could be illegal “Companies could be infringing privacy if they dig up information about job applicants

Voki

2007-11-27T07:55:00.001Z

Consider.....AC_Voki_Embed(200,267, '5e1c0269ae6ff7c616ac69c5403c2188', 98779, 1, '', 0);Get a Voki now!

Oh no not fireworks again!

2007-11-11T18:17:00.000Z

Much as I love the spectacle of a firework display.. well apart from 4th July on a beach in France when rockets and fireworks were being let off at every angle without any thought for those walking about... night after night since the beginning of November takes the shine off the idea.. Why can't they do it virtually???Up to ten ….a super site for younger children has a firework game, while

Thought for the day

2007-10-26T07:35:00.002+01:00

On the way to the wales-wide web to read Graham Attwell's blog from May this year e-portfolios - the DNA of the Personal Learning Environment? (thanks Martin Owen) I stopped off at other blogs on on my list and followed conversations.I came across a couple of videos that held me there to the end...Eight year old Cracks the Code to Happy Thoughtand much much longer from Professor Randy

Internet privacy

2007-10-01T14:31:00.002+01:00

Earlier this year Oxford students had images on their facebook pages used as evidence to discipline them.Now we see the consequences of not guarding your privacy on the sports pages where rising tennis stars are suspended for unprofessional behaviour and lack of discipline as a result of the photographic evidence on their Beebo sites. It could be said that this was the lesser of many evils that

Herding cats

2007-09-13T11:53:00.002+01:00

ICT, education and young children...... it's a bit like herding cats.. but as the man says " I wouldn't do nothin' else"

Ipod gadget

2007-09-12T16:32:00.001+01:00

Gadgets! love 'em...A current favourite is the XtremeMac micromemo for the iPod video ( and for the nano too)It’s a ‘high-fidelity’ recorder for the ipod. . it connects to the docking port and the flexible, detachable microphone captures audio. Or you can use any microphone with a 3.5mm-plug. It’s a one touch control and no extra batteries or cables are needed. Which it makes it as portable as

ICT in the early years

2007-09-03T11:37:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I had a timely reminder ( I’m preparing work for a group of early years students) about ICT in the Early Years, the Homerton Nursery ICT, site from my friend Doug Dickinson.Homerton Nursery in Cambridge is a center of excellence and part of it’s outreach is supporting ICT in the foundation stage. The site offers examples both in text and video and support for planning. As you would

Science Day

2007-09-03T11:22:00.001+01:00

It’s the time for returning to school after a summer break, and with that comes professional development for schools. Last week a group of local schools got together for a ‘Science day’ at the East Midlands Science Learning Centre.During the day a couple of groups working with me considered such questions as ‘Why do penguins huddle?’, ’What’s the best colour to wear at night?’ ‘How can I make it

ictopus ready to swim away

2007-08-31T16:09:00.001+01:00

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

In the night Garden

2007-08-29T22:21:00.000+01:00

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

Disconnected

2007-08-21T08:31:00.001+01:00

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

Digital Purdah

2007-08-20T10:48:00.000+01:00

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

Out of the mouths…

2007-08-06T12:00:00.000+01:00

……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

The camera never lies

2007-08-06T08:31:00.000+01:00

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

ictopus

2007-07-20T09:21:00.000+01:00

There's a new very practical resource out there for those involved in Primary Education, ictopus , and I'm sure it's tentacles will be everywhere. "It will aim to be flexible and adaptive to the needs of users and to provide a forum for dissemination of the excellent practice currently found in many schools." Initially it will provide a down-loadable magazine and activity suggestions weekly

Manipulation

2007-07-18T12:56:00.000+01:00

Having returned I was reading around online, and off, catching up, when my attention was drawn to the pop video on You tube I've Got a Crush ... on Obama, The Guardian news blog refers to it as ‘steamy’. Certainly the footage taken against montage photo’s of the man himself alongside the words of the song could give the impression that they met occasionally :-) It’s about manipulating opinion

Early Years animation

2007-06-21T06:48:00.000+01:00

Simon Mills in his blog ICT Inspirations writes about his experience with Early Years children and animation as a catalyst for language development and social interaction. Using a Digital Blue video camera and stop frame animation they build a house in Lego.. What a good idea.He speculates about extensions to this activity, but would like foundation stage people to comment on these.. have look

e-mail ..

2007-06-20T06:37:00.000+01:00

Which half do you belong to?http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6761601.stm

Blogging.. making a start

2007-06-15T07:32:00.001+01:00

Want to start blogging with your class? John Johnson of Sandaig Primary offers step by step advice based on his experience.He’s been blogging and podcasting very successfully with his children for some time and they have an international following. There are links to all the school blogs in his own blog, take a look at Sandaig poets, inspiration for poetry writing in the classroom.

Video everywhere

2007-06-11T06:59:00.000+01:00

Flixn http://flixn.com/Saw this on Kathy Cassidy's blog and the idea is spreading. A great tool for children to talk for a purpose.. tell the world.

Web 2.0 in the classroom

2007-06-10T21:21:00.000+01:00

Here are two teachers describing how they gently developed the use of web 2.0 technologies in their classrooms. These teachers have their eyes firmly on learning and teaching and are down to earth about what they are doing. They could be models of how to get started. The videos were made for online conferences that each has taken part in recently. Enjoy them.But think now …where are the teachers

Early Years blogs

2007-06-08T08:43:00.001+01:00

Chris Smith of the Shambles in S.E. Asia has been asking his fellow Naace members for examples of early years (3 – 7 years) use of web 2.0 technology.I’ve sent some and followed up others that have been suggested, see below.Schools all over the world are using blogs and wikis to communicate with parents, showcase the children’s work and introduce the children to the wider world. Are you?? Let me

Surface computing

2007-05-31T06:53:00.000+01:00

Remember the multi touch screen used in the film Minority Report.... well it was not science fiction at the time of the film.. but it is now in the public domain..and will be cheaper soon .. perhaps. This film is short introduction.Here Jeff Han introduces his invention/innovation to a TED Audience in Feb 2006http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/65Sammy's world....

Monday morning

2007-05-28T08:36:00.000+01:00

Welcome!Here we are on Monday morning, wet and windy and the end of May.Join in when you're ready :-)