iPads in Education

If you are looking for a range of iPad apps appropriate to education it would be good to start here.

Shambles newsletter

People who keep up to date with what is happening in the ICT world of education read the Shambles Newsletter produced by Chris Smith in Thailand.

Here is his bio:

Chris Smith, digital nomad evangelist, has been working mainly with International School teachers in S.E. Asia for more than 25 years.

He was previously the ICT Advisor for the English School Foundation (ESF) in HK where he was the Head of their teacher Professional Development Centre and then responsible for writing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating the Foundations overall ICT Development Plan.

In 2002 he established a consultancy “The Education Project Asia” to extend these support opportunities to other International Schools across 17 countries in S.E. Asia focused on the “Integration of ICT in Teaching and Learning”. He is based in Thailand, and all over the internet.

Other work has included being the evaluator of a UNESCO project (SchoolNet) which involved schools from eight ASEAN countries …. and numerous workshops and conferences across the region.

In February 2010 he was a speaker at a TEDx Conference held in Bangkok http://TEDxBKK.com

He’s well known by many teachers worldwide for the “Shambles” website, http://www.shambles.net, which he founded in 2002 and manages.

In 2007 he established International Schools Island in Second Life (3D online virtual world) where his avatar is “Shamblesguru Voom”, if you search for ‘Shamblesguru’ on Google then you’ll find many more entries than by searching for “Chris Smith”

For more information about his online presence and his activities in the Web 2.0 world see his Personal Learning Network at www.shambles.net/csmith/pln

Follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/shamblesguru

Wall socket plus usb

Getting the cabling in for a classroom or computer room  ? … a clever idea … a 13A wall socket with a built-in usb …

Mouse Mischief

If you haven’t already heard about Microsoft’s FREE idea called ‘Mouse Mischief‘ then prepare to have your eyes opened!

Watch the video and then take the plunge … take the risk … could be worth it!

This is what they say about it:

Mouse Mischief can transform teaching and learning in the classroom. Mouse Mischief integrates into Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, allowing teachers to create interactive presentations that engage and excite every student in the classroom. Approximately 5–25 students, each with his or her own mouse, can answer multiple choice questions and draw on a shared screen. You can download Mouse Mischief free of charge.

Florence Nightingale’s Birthday

Just so that you can get ready for this on I would like to point out that it is Florence Nightingale’s  birthday on 12 th May … and would like to draw your attention to some support packs that have been prepared for the event by TTS … check out their web site to view.

Introduction to the LogIT Explorer

Nice information pdf to support datalogging with LogIT.

‘An introduction to using the LogIT Explorer datalogger’ – from Scottish Borders.

BETT 2010

Its that time of the year again …. BETT week … the biggest Educational ICT show in the world opens its doors to the public on Wednesday 13th January and runs through to Saturday 16th. There will be lots to see and lots to do … with luck innovation will rule and people will be there striving for your attention to explain why their products are the very best for teaching and learning. You need to go and see and make up your own mind.

There are evening events as well organised by teachers for teacher …  The whole BETT show and the teacher events are FREE . In Service education at no cost ( except travel) … too good to miss.

Keeping up …

One of the problems faced by all ICT subject leaders (and I suspect many others) is keeping up. Keeping up with the enormous amount of information that comes forward. I use my RSS feeds to keep me a sane as possible. Here are my top choices:

• MJO - Merlin John Online
• Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
• Next Generation Learning in Kent
• Emerging Technologies
• Futurelab – Flux
• Shambles Newsletter
• Teachernet News
• BBC Technology News
• BBC Education News
• Telegraph – Latest Technology News
• Guardian Education News

Bee-Bot Resources

Those clever people down in Kent (well this time James Barrett) have created some really useful Bee-Bot resources.

They can be accessed here … excellent stuff James!

Easi-Speak Pro

I have just got my hands on an Easi-Speak Pro from TTS … it looks good and worked straight away, out of the box. It has all of the functions of the earlier Easi-Speaks but is bigger, slightly heavier and will appeal to older children/students and teachers. It is on page 5 of the new catalogue and I feel sure that it will feature at the front of the web site very shortly.