Creative ICT News

Spanish Accents Alt Codes Keyboard Shortcuts [del.icio.us]

2009-11-09T10:36:30-08:00

Keyboard shortcuts for Spanish typeing. Note that you must use the numeric keypad to type the numbers, while holding down the Alt key, not the numbers across the top of the keyboard.

Supalogo - create nice text logos [del.icio.us]

2009-11-02T00:40:08-08:00

Simple logo generator: enter your text and choose font, size, colour etc before generating logo. Useful for websites and blogs etc

Incerts User Group Invitation

2009-11-02T08:08:58+00:00

If you are a primary school teacher interested in assessment and pupil tracking then why not come along to the Incerts User Group on 10th November at Ashbury Meadow Primary School from 1:30pm - 4:00pm. Details and location etc here.

Incerts is a web based teacher assessment recording, reporting and tracking/analysis system designed to take the pain out of pupil tracking, report producing and analysis. I work with about 20 schools in the northwest using the system and you are cordially invited to find out more about the system and what existing users think about it by coming along to the user group next Tuesday. Simply drop me a line to book a place.

Blogging is for little ones, too

2009-10-29T10:08:18+00:00

The art of blogging seems to be getting a little more recognition in schools, and I was pleased to see that a teacher from Redbridge got an award for his blogging with reception children (Guardian article on the award here). Of course, the Creative Blogs community are no strangers to the benefits of blogging with younger children. Jack Sloans's year two blog at Chorlton Park gets an incredible amount of traffic and he has taken a lot of time and effort to get the children actually writing on the blogs themselves independently - I know I've watched them do it. Another great year two blog is that from Claire Jones at Southwark Primary in Nottingham, one of the newest schools to join Creative Blogs. In the early years the best example is probably Angela Newham's blog at Green Park (Peter Rafferty's Year 1 blog at this school was legendary - but he's now moved up to year 4). So, congratulations to Dan at Gearies primary for his award - I know that Anthony Evans, the ICT advisor from Redbridge, who is a friend, will be very proud. Maybe a Creative Blogger could get an award one year?

Comicbrush [del.icio.us]

2009-10-28T03:16:25-07:00

Comic strip creation site. Galleries of backgrounds and characters etc or draw yourself. Upload your own artwork or photos too.

World Weather Information Service - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [del.icio.us]

2009-10-21T02:36:59-07:00

Summary weather data index for UK cities. Useful for spreadsheet work. The data is from the UK Met Office but is presented in a nice simple format to understand.

Taking real responsibility for e-safety is more than just a scheme of work

2009-10-15T23:41:35+01:00

There have been quite a few Ofsted inspections in the northwest recently and it seems that safeguarding children and e-safety was very high on the agenda. Given recent events in Haringey and the announcement that 1/3 of serious case reviews were unsatisfactory, it's not surprising that their interest has been raised.

I have long held the opinion that far too many schools don't take e-safety seriously and simply back off the responsibility of internet filtering and monitoring their web connection to the local authority. I believe that simply teaching e-safety is only part of the solution to developing a real e-safety culture in school - hence the title of this blog post. I'm guessing that in 90%+ of primary schools the senior management has no idea for what purpose their web connection is being used from day to day. I don't believe that this is a tenable position for any school to take if they claim to put e-safety and safeguarding children at the core of their use of ICT. What systems are in place to detect cyber-bullying? How do you know anyone has attempted to access inappropriate material, even if it was blocked?

I have just updated an audit I wrote a while back that covers how your school manages its internet connection. Click here to view the audit. It's only any use if you answer it honestly.

Managing and Monitoring, where to start?

Without detailed technical knowledge on how the internet works, it can be quite daunting trying to find a way forward towards a situation where you feel confident that you know what is happening on your school network and developing a robust e-safety environment. In fact, it's surprisingly straightforward with a little bit of planning and investment.

Step 1: All children and staff should have secure individual accounts and passwords.

Without this fundamental step there can be no real accountability for the use of the internet in school. This may well mean getting your IT provider to do some fairly extensive network restructuring, but once done you won't look back. Frequently infants and early years teachers worry that their children won't be able to manage logging in. My experience tells me that this is not the case: use a standard password for early years and year 1 and introduce individual passwords in year 2. If necessary use laminated cards for little ones to copy user names from.

Step 2: Adopt a robust acceptable use policy.

Here's an acceptable use policy I developed with St James' primary school in Gorton, click to view. Feel free to copy and adapt. It's absolutely essential that you have regular INSET sessions on AUP and e-safety to keep up to date. I find this excellent guidance document from Kent County Council can be used to stimulate a staff meeting effectively. For more discussion on the issues surrounding developing an AUP read this blog post and the associated comments.

Step 3: Find out how to monitor your web connection.

Most schools have a cache server that manages the web connection for the school. In most cases these boxes contain software that will produce reports on the web traffic. Find out from your IT provider or web provider how this box works: how to block/unblock websites; how to produce monitoring reports; how to suspend/reinstate web access. Often, it's the work of moments to do these jobs, it's just a case of getting the training. Get more than one person trained on how to do this and share the responsibility.

I would also seriously consider a network scanning system such as those supplied by Securus or Forensic Software. These systems take network monitoring way beyond the levels than what you can manage with a cache box, so much so, that I am constantly amazed that more schools don't implement them. While I was ICT co-ordinator at Crumpsall Lane, one of the biggest primary schools in Manchester, I relied upon one of these systems to scan our network, and I can say that if I were ever to go back to being an ICT co-ordinator again I would insist upon such a system being in place (disclosure: I am not, nor ever have been on commission or received work from either of the above companies, and I'm sure there are others in the market place). For more on Crumpsall lane's monitoring system, read my comment at the bottom of this post on Ewan McIntosh's blog. I'm pleased to note that some local authorities are now investing in these systems for all their schools.

Teaching e-safety

So far, I have only talked about policies and systems, and there is a simple reason for this: its' a core belief of mine that without setting up the right environment, any education and teaching you undertake is at serious risk of being undermined by the actions of individuals in school (and I will include staff in that term). Once you've got the environment right, discussion of e-safety takes on a real and practical dimension that simply wasn't there before. Children and staff become aware that there are real responsibilities and accountability attached to the use of the school's IT systems, with real consequences for abuse. Ultimately however, whatever systems and monitoring you have in your school e-safety is about teaching children to take responsibility for their use of the internet and how to make safe choices. Having a secure environment won't stop some attempting to take advantage, but when they do you will have a much better chance of nipping it in the bud and dealing with the issue constructively.

The Porchester Pupil Wiki - Learning Space Help Pages [del.icio.us]

2009-10-14T06:54:57-07:00

Instructions on embedding Google Docs into a learning space such as a blog or wiki.

test » Blog Archive » iFrame google spreadsheet example [del.icio.us]

2009-10-14T03:52:58-07:00

John Johnston kindly knocked up a bit of code to display a Google spreadsheet in an iframe on a blog. This technique would also work for documents. Simpy copy his code at the bottom of the post and replace the URL shown with that of your own Google Doc.

Acceptable Use Policy to download

2009-10-09T12:58:23+01:00

As part of my work at St James' Primary School in Manchester I have had to update an old acceptable use policy from my days as ICT co-ordinator at Crumpsall Lane. It includes some guidance on the use of social networking by staff and an Internet access statement. We've given it a Creative Commons share and share alike attribution, so feel free to copy it and adapt it for your own (non-commercial) purposes.

Link to AUP

As an aside, we also wanted to find a data protection policy. While the ICT co-ord went to call the LA for a copy of their policy, I tweeted the fact that we needed such a policy from my phone, and by the time she returned saying that the LA were emailing her one, my PLN on Twitter had furnished me with several examples. Twitter is indeed my Google!

Most data protection policies seem to be wrapped in legalese, but this one from Wokingham doesn't seem too bad: Link to DPP.

animoto - for education [del.icio.us]

2009-10-08T14:10:19-07:00

Get an educational account for the brilliant animoto slideshow creator that allows you to create logins for your students.

copyrightfriendly - home [del.icio.us]

2009-10-06T02:35:35-07:00

A collection of weblinks to sources of copyright free images and sounds.

Teachmeet NW, the resources

2009-10-06T09:29:35+01:00

Teachmeet NW took place on Friday night at the 21stCC Classroom in Salford. The 21stCC Classroom is a great space to take your class to undertake a wide range of free multimedia activities. The only problem is it's wildly popular and booking can be an issue. They also do some excellent teacher workshops, again all free. The only issue with the venue was its location halfway up the East Lancs Road which left people struggling with traffic to get there. It also meant that there was nowhere local for refreshments afterwards.

I'm not going to blog at length about Teachmeet as Dan Stucke has done that admirably already and has instituted quite a conversation on his blog. I instead I will point you at some of the excellent resources that were showcased.

Etherpad: a document editor that allows multiple people to edit the same document in real time. Great for collaborative writing. Test it on your school network first.

Boolify: A really simple and graphical explanation of Boolean logic for search engines. Blog posts here.

Mapwing: A great virtual tour tool upon which I have blogged.

Writerhymes: Write a line of poetry, hold down the alt key and click on a word, Writerhymes will suggest rhyming words

Spezify: A visual search tool that's great for open ended explorations of a theme: health warning, test the theme words you are going to search for in advance.

And there were many more: for a growing list of links go to the growing TeachmeetNW wiki.

Thanks to Steve Kirkpatrick of Charlestown primary school for doing the donkeywork and getting the whole thing off the ground. Maybe next year we can double the audience?

CO2 emissions, birth & death rates by country, simulated real-time [del.icio.us]

2009-10-06T01:00:59-07:00

An animated model showing birth and death rates and CO2 emissions across the globe. Identifies the big C)2 polluters graphically and skyrocketing population stats. Scary stuff. Add dramatic music for full effect (suggestion of Tom Barrett)

Zerofootprint: Footprint Calculator [del.icio.us]

2009-10-06T00:55:50-07:00

Works out a child's environmental impact by asking questions about their lifestyle. Good supporting information, lessons and resources on the site, too.

Write rhymes. [del.icio.us]

2009-10-06T00:06:10-07:00

Hold down the alt key and click on a word; Write Rhymes will suggest rhyming words - sometimes. Seems to be good on short 1 and 2 syllable words, not so good on longer words, for example, couldn't find a rhyme for development, despite the common enough "ment" suffix.

20 Really Useful And Free Scripts To Plot Charts In Your Site Or Blog Pages @ SmashingApps [del.icio.us]

2009-10-05T23:43:18-07:00

I'm going to have to look into these to see which are the easiest to use in Wordpress.

YouTube - Did you know 2.0 [del.icio.us]

2009-10-04T06:16:04-07:00

Video from 2007 with interesting statistics about the growth of recorded knowledge, how it's going to be accessed etc. A powerful case for making ICT a fundamental part of any school's vision for its children

Is this a school's business?

2009-09-30T16:58:29+01:00

A teacher in a primary school that I work with has become aware that lots of the children in her school have started to use Facebook in clear breach of the terms of service of that website (Users must be at least 13 years of age). She has no evidence at this stage that they have used the site for any nefarious purpose but contacted Facebook to ask what their policy was about this sort of thing. Facebook responded that in order to investigate an account they need the following information:

- The exact name listed on the account

- The child's real date of birth (month/day/year)

- Any networks associated with the account

- A link (URL) to the account's profile page or search listing

- A list of any email addresses that may have been used to register the account

- A description of the profile picture

A school is not at liberty to disclose such personal data as dates of birth, and will probably have no idea about email addresses. She obviously has a pastoral concern for the children in question, but should she be taking the matter up with parents, rather than Facebook, or indeed should she be taking it up at all?

Teachmeet Northwest this Friday

2009-09-29T20:20:06+01:00

On Friday evening the first ever Teachmeet to take place in the Northwest will happen at the 21^st Century Classroom in Salford 5pm -10pm

If you have never been to a Teachmeet you are missing one of the most exciting and vibrant events on the teaching calendar. A Teachmeet is an unconference run by the attendees consisting of micro (7 minute) and nano (2 minute) presentations on some aspect or other of innovative classroom practice, often tech related. Teachmeets are informal, fun and free. To attend, all you need to do is sign up on the TeachmeetNW page. You don’t have to do a presentation if you don’t want to, but the more who do, the better it gets. Afterwards there is an opportunity for a bit of a social gathering, too.

Here's what I thought of Teachmeet Midlands a few months back.

Sign up here:
http://teachmeetnw.pbworks.com/

Anybody wanting a lift from Stockport or South Manchester, just drop me a line.

I hope to see you there.

Directions

21CC Salford:

Google map

Address:
21CC Salford
2 Broadbent Street
Swinton
M27 0BQ
21CC Salford is in the grounds of Moorside High School which is situated on the A580 East Lancashire Road.

By Train:
Moorside Train Station (turn right down Moorside Road, at junction turn left and then take subway underneath dual carriageway.Turn left through Moorside High School gates and then continue right into 21CC car park).

By Coach:
From the M60:
Exit at Jct 13, follow signs to Swinton, on Worsley Road turn left on to A580.
From the A580 (Manchester to Liverpool direction):
Pass Premier Lodge Inn, New Ellesmere Pub/Restaurant and Total garage on your left, turn left after garage into Moorside High School gates, and then continue right into 21CC car park.
From the A580 (Liverpool to Manchester direction):
Turn right at lights at Moorside Road, continue to mini roundabout and turn left on to Worsley Road, follow to traffic lights and turn left back onto A580 to come back on the other side of the dual carriageway - follow rest of directions above.
Please do not park on Broadbent Street.

Textease Resources and Downloads [del.icio.us]

2009-09-22T06:48:14-07:00

Masses of free resources, ideas and tips to make the most of Textease Studio CT

Elias Fotinis DeskPins :: Make Any Window Topmost [del.icio.us]

2009-09-22T04:16:53-07:00

This is a really handy utility. Often, if I'm creating a batch of new blogs, or want to copy information from a document or spreadsheet I want the document to remain topmost on my desktop, thus enabling me to work much faster without constantly changing windows. This is exactly what Deskpins does. Also useful when podcasting - allows you to keep a script on top of the desktop while using Audacity.

How many ways are there to skin a cat?

2009-09-22T11:34:20+01:00

The "Wisdom of crowds" is a common concept amongst web aficionados. It's the notion that a group working together, despite being spread across the web can produce something much more useful than an individual working alone. Amazon were one of the first companies to realise its potential in a big way by encouraging its customers to review the products it sells. The idea being that customer reviews carry a much greater authority than marketing blurb. There is a common misconception that Wikipedia also harnesses this power. However, recent research at Carnegie Mellon University reported on at ReadWriteWeb shows that there is a real danger that intensive activity by relatively small number of customers can seriously skew customer ratings. Similarly, 1% of Wikipedia members are responsible for over 50% of the edits. So the whole idea of the "Wisdom of Crowds" may well be overrated and called into question. Nevertheless, when working at a more prosaic level it is still a very useful concept with realworld, practical applications as the development of Ideas to Inspire amply demonstrates.

Using the collaborative power of Google Docs, Tom Barrett (a teacher from Nottingham) and Anthony Evans (the ICT advisor for the London Borough of Redbridge) among others have been creating a whole series of presentations containing useful ideas, tips and inspiration. Each one is thrown open to teachers to add their own ideas and is a genuinely collaborative effort (I've added a few ideas of my own). As an example, here is one on ideas for using search engines in the classroom:

Anthony has also just started work on one about digital images and he would be very pleased to give you edit rights to the presentation (just drop him a line)

The complete collection of these presentations can be found at Ideas to Inspire, a truly inspiring example of the wisdom of crowds in action.

Boolify Updated Already

2009-09-19T10:00:25+01:00

As a result of my blog posts, Boolify have already done one update on their website: the Boolean operators are now displayed in capitals, making the display of the operators match the way they work in real life thus avoiding one of the more obvious mistakes that one can make when trying a Boolean search. Thanks Boolify! I'd be interested to know what you thought about my idea of automatically parsing complex searches with the "AND" operator and introducing quotes.

As an aside, I was using Boolify to support my local studies blog at Springwood Heath Primary School. We were building complex searches such as:

Woolton AND Liverpool AND Shops

Woolton AND Liverpool AND Railway

This all worked really well, but some of the older laptops we were using still had Internet Explorer 6 on them. Boolify detects which web browser the computer is using and if you are still on IE 6 (which was released by Microsoft in 2001!)you get a much older and clunkier version of Boolify (which will presumably have IE 6 browser compliancy). Yet another powerful reason to get rid of that archaic, insecure anachronism that is IE 6!

More on the Mysteries of Search

2009-09-17T10:25:21+01:00

In my last blog post I was trying to understand (somewhat unsuccessfully) the mysyteries of Boolean search. Luckily, my Twitter network came to the rescue and @neiladam pointed out the flaw in my methodology, namely, the Boolean operators "OR","AND" or "NOT" all need to be in capital letters. I was using Boolify to teach the session and was thrown by the fact that the operators on the jigsaw pieces that Boolify uses to build their searches doesn't display the operators in capitals. Clearly Boolify themselves use Google Alerts and I was pleased that David Crusoe found time to comment on my piece taking on board the suggestion of putting the operators in capital letters.

I think they need to take a further step and parse complex search terms too. A complex search term is any search that consists of more than one word. So in my example I searched for Second World War. Google actually splits this up into a Boolean search thus:

Second AND World AND War

What this means in practice is that Google will find pages with these three words occuring anywhere, not just together, which is obviously what I meant it to do. This is an instance where you would need to use quotes to get it to search for the exact phrase "Second World War". It would be fantastic if Boolify automatically inserted the "AND" operator between complex search terms as well as having a quotation operator to allow the searching of phrases.

Rules for teaching Boolean Search

The operators AND, OR, NOT must be in capital letters;
Complex search terms containing more than one word automatically get parsed (split) using the AND operator;
Use quotation marks for searching exact phrases.

Now that isn't too complicated. And, because Boolify builds the search terms visually using a jigsaw, it is very easy for children to understand. I'm hoping that they look seriously at the changes that I mention as it would massively improve the site as a teaching tool - I would even go so far as to suggest you use it as a default search engine for research in class.

To add a final spanner in the works, David points out that Google's search technology goes far beyond simple Boolean logic and uses all sorts of ways of ranking pages in terms of relevance, importance and authority, but I'm guessing you need a degree in computer science from Berkeley to understand how they do it.