Over the last couple of months, there have been a number of articles popping up in my RSS newsfeeds in Google Reader, or shared via Twitter, that share a common theme: how can software and web tools support creative writing and story-telling?
In a short series of blog posts, I’m going to try to pull together a set of ideas, resources and links under the following headings: Read the rest of this entry »
filed under Best of the Web and Software and Views December 16th, 2008 Richard Anderson
On Monday, I worked with Year 9 students from The Northicote School in the first day of a three day project focussing on Science and Maths.
We used a variety of technologies to explore two of the key principles of the Key Stage 3 Science curriculum; energy and forces.
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filed under Best of the Web and Software November 21st, 2008 Richard Anderson
Wordle.net is an online tool for creating “word clouds”. A word cloud is a visual representation of words in a piece of text, in which words are sized according to the frequency in which they appear. Here is an example, based upon the current content of the RSS newsfeed from the CLC website. (What is RSS? - BBC Website)
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filed under Best of the Web November 20th, 2008 Richard Anderson
While searching for some resources to support a forthcoming session at the CLC, I came across Phun (http://www.phunland.com/wiki/Home). Phun is a fascinating tool for playing with the physics of objects. You can draw simple shapes, alter their physical principles (density, friction etc.) and manipulate them - throw or push them around, or collide them with one another.
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filed under Best of the Web and Software November 10th, 2008 Richard Anderson
If you’re ever in need of some beautiful icons / graphics for a web design project, desktop publishing, or to smarten up a Powerpoint or Smart Notebook presentation, then check out this collection of beautiful free icon sets:
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filed under Best of the Web November 4th, 2008 Richard Anderson
Apple computers are appearing in more of our schools. Small suites in Secondary Media Studies or Art Departments are not uncommon. A primary school may even have a couple of MacBooks or a Mac mini for podcasting or editing video.
For most, the reason these computers have managed to break the long-standing dominance of Windows is .. iLife. The iLife suite, Apple’s integrated collection of media tools - iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, iDVD, iTunes - is a fantastic collection of tools for all forms of media manipulation. The intuitive ease-of-use of these tools, and the way they link together so seamlessly, makes them an easy sell for Apple. For many schools, educators, or departments, iLife is THE reason to buy a Mac. (Oh, that and the fact they look quite cool too).
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filed under Software and Views November 1st, 2008 Richard Anderson
During the year 2008-2009, the CLC is working with every Secondary School in the city to deliver sessions to students and staff focussed around eSafety (Read more here). The sessions are based around the CEOP ThinkUKnow training, a structured programme of resources and video materials aimed at students aged 11-16. The key messages of the ThinkUKnow training are:
- How to have fun
- How to stay in control
- How to report a problem
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filed under Best of the Web and Session Resources October 20th, 2008 Richard Anderson
On Monday afternoon, I participated in a session at the CLC on the ongoing transformation of the Key Stage 3 curriculum. I led a session on using technology to enhance learning and teaching. Lindsay Coleman, Secondary Headteacher Consultant, delivered a session on current eLearning initiatives in Wolverhampton. Finally, Rebecca Orszulan from Trinity Primary School shared some of the exciting work going in the school, work which has just seen the school being awarded the Runners-Up prize in the prestigious BECTA ICT Excellence Awards in the Best Whole School category.
After my session, a number of people asked if I could email details of the websites and software I had mentioned. In the best tradition of Web 2.0, I decided to publish them here instead! Where I’ve given an external web link (i.e. other than on the CLC website) I’ve written out the url in full, so that a printed version of this post will be a usable resource.
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filed under Best of the Web and Session Resources November 23rd, 2007 Richard Anderson
While teaching Web Design to Key Stage 4 students, I’ve spent a lot of time this week with The Jing Project, TechSmith’s new (free, for now) screen capturing software for both Windows and Mac. From their website:
The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere.
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filed under Software November 9th, 2007 Richard Anderson
As I’m working this week with a group of Year 10 students from Bilston High on a three day web design course, I thought I’d take the opportunity to collect together resources to support the teaching of web design to Key Stage 3/4 students (age 11 - 16).
My approach to teaching web design is basically this: Read the rest of this entry »
filed under Session Resources November 5th, 2007 Richard Anderson
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