ICT 6th Form Prezi

Here's why you should study ICT in the 6th form

ICT GCSE Chapter 4 Prezi

Here is my GCSE Chapter 4 Prezi.

New Mobile Learning Prezi

Here is a Prezi that I used on the staff training day.  It shows some of the ways in which we can use new and mobile technology within education.

Mobile & New Technologies

ICT Forum 20-10-11

· Mobile technology in learning

How do we use iPads and iPods within school?  Many subject areas are now exploring the use of these items within their classrooms and are realising the power of this new medium.  If you want to find out more, ask teachers in the following areas – ICT, Media, Sports & the Arts, DT, Science, English, History and Geography. Here is a link to an Apple article on how to get started with mobile technology in learning and how useful it can be;

 http://images.apple.com/uk/education/docs/Apple-iPodGettingStartedGuide081809.pdf

Here is an interesting article on how mobile technology is being used in America;

Have a look ..... Click here

We also have 11 iPod touches that can be loaned out to trial using mobile technologies in the learning environment

· Helpful applications

Here’s a few new FREE apps that I have found over the past few weeks;

All subjects – Flashcards+, My spelling test free, Microsoft Office 2010: Video training course lite

Sci – Chemistry A level exams tutor, Biology A level exams tutor, GCSE Science, Skyview Free

MFL – Free French Tutor – 24/7 Language Learning, Free Spanish Tutor – 24/7 Language Learning, Free Italian Tutor – 24/7 Language Learning, Learn French Quick, Free Spanish essentials

6th Form – UCAS, UCAS Track, AA theory Test

Art – color effects,  How to draw (free lessons), Camera Studio+, Photosynth, Splice – Video Editor, WaterMyPhoto

Maths – iMathematica, Maths Addicted, Maths GCSE exams tutor, Mathscard GCSE, Mental maths lite

· Blogs

Here’s a list of all of our current blogs.  If you are interested in starting your own blog then just see Mr Lindgren.

ICT - http://www./whsictblog.blogspot.com

Performing arts – http://www./whsperformingarts.blogspot.com

PE – http://www.whspeblog.blogspot.com/

English & Media – http://www./whsenglishmedia.blogspot.com

· Collaborative learning

Check out this video about Google docs on YouTube (The Youtube links have all been generated using http://www.safeshare.tv/ which gets rid of all of the content apart from the video):

http://www.safeshare.tv/w/ZTkWHSJiVv

· The ‘cloud’

The cloud will revolutionise the way we store and retrieve our data.  It is being harnessed by all of the big companies and is the next big step in ICT.  Check out this video about Dropbox on YouTube (Apple tried to by Dropbox for 800 million dollars earlier this year):

http://www.safeshare.tv/w/WJANKLYPan

Check out this video about iCloud YouTube:

http://www.safeshare.tv/w/mbfYeaVUnN

· New network developments

If you need guidance on how to use the new Office 2010 packages have a look at the 2007 video tutorials on www.teach-ict.com as it is very similar

· Moodle

Our moodle is well on the way and is being populated with ICT resources and courses.  It can be found in the ICT & Business shared area.  Mr James is dealing with requests for training and the addition of new courses for other subject areas.

· The new school website

The new school website is well under way and the basic pages will be going live over the next few weeks. Ask Mr Lindgren to see the progress.

· ESafety

Here are a few useful links regarding ESafety that we all need to know and be aware of in this ever changing digital age;

The Yorkshire and Humber Grid For Learning website ESafety section; www.yhgfl.net/esafeguarding/esafety

Here is a link to a website created by Vodafone. It is full of parent friendly guidance; www.parents.vodafone.com

I’m sure we’re all aware of the brilliance of Facebook, but it also has many downsides.  Here is their own guide, which sets out how to protect your account, avoid scammers, set advanced security settings, recovering a hacked account and stopping imposters.

www.facebook.com/safety/attachment/guide%20to%20facebook%20security.pdf

Please see Mr Lindgren if you want any advice on how to manage, deactivate or delete your Facebook account.

Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

Steve jobs was a true game changer, innovator and imagineer.

Life as we know it would not be the same without his brilliant mind and eye for the next big thing.

Have a think. Read about his life. He is a true inspiration to us all. He took ideas and made them real.
Click on the title above to look at the best obituary I have read so far.

Are you the next Steve Jobs? I hope so.

Is this the new iPhone 5?

The launch date is .....Oct 5th (allegedly)

The bigger news is the new IOS5.  I'll keep you posted.

A great report on iPads in a US school

Here is the link to a very good, balanced report on how one school is engaging students by giving them all an iPad each. Have a look ..... Click here

Good to see...

.....so many future ICT students tonight. We showed the year 5's and 6's the exciting times ahead.  The ICT blog is back!

Sent from my iPad

Handy apps

Productivity

• Dragon Dictation - a free app that allows you to read into your apple device and it converts your voice into text.
• Evernote - A free 'must have' app that allows you to create notes, ideas, snapshots, documents, recordings etc all in one place.  This is really good for making a collection of ideas for lessons/sow/units/topics for staff and students.
• Documents to go - is a paid app (5.99) that allows you to create, edit and view Word and Excel files. It allows you to view PowerPoint and PDF files too.  This app is not as polished as the Apple versions, but it links directly with Dropbox to allow you to store your files in their cloud.

Images/videos

• PS Express - A free mini Photoshop app that allows you to put amazing effects on your pictures.  This app does things that would usually take hours to learn how to do in Photoshop.
• Simple Transfer (lite) - is a free app that allows you to send pictures form your apple device to a PC via any internet connection
• Photo Exchange - is a free app that allows you to send and receive photos or pictures over a wireless network. Great app.
• Reel Director - is a paid app (1.19 when I bought it) that allows you to create your own videos from pictures, videos and sounds  - just like an iPad version of Windows Movie Maker. It is very easy to use and is well worth the price.

Searching

• Cooliris - A free picture searching app that allows you to find better looking pictures.
• Qwiki - is a free app that looks like the future of how we will get our information.  It gathers together information from around the web about any topic you choose and collates it together in an ingenious way.  Have a go, you'll be hooked.

Education

• ShowMe - is a free, but very basic whiteboard app which allows you to annotate over pictures taken with the iPad and record audio whilst doing so.
• TED - is a free app that collects together inspirational speakers from around the world.  
• Translate - is a free translation app by Google.  It seems to work fine, although if I'm not back at work in September, I may have told an Italian that their mother smells of elderberries or something.
• Sas Flash cards - is a free flash card tool. This looks really good and useful.
• iThoughtHD - is a paid app (5.99) that allows you to create amazing mind maps.
• Airboard - is a free and fun app that allows you to collaborate ideas live with  apple devices over a Wi-Fi connection. Great for starters and plenaries.

Connectivity

• Splashtop - is a paid app (1.49) that allows you to seamlessly connect to your PC remotely via an internet connection. When connected you will see your PC's desktop on your iPad - Windows on an Apple device.

News

• Flipboard - is a free app that allows you to collate all of your favourite news feeds and social media feeds. It is like your very own magazine filled with stuff that you like - designed by you.
• Sky News – is a brilliant free news app especially designed for the iPad.

Useful

• Appbox lite - is a free app that includes currency converters, date calculators, tip calculator, unit conversion, loan calculator and many more.
• Calculator pro - is a free calculator. The iPad doesn't have one.
• abcNotes - is a free trial version of a note jotter. It allows you to create virtual sticky notes and put them on the ipad screen in any order you want.  The paid version is cheap and has much more functionality
• Corkulous - is a paid app (2.99) that is a virtual cork board so you can collect and collate ideas.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a free file saving and sharing utility. There are versions for all ict devices meaning you can access your documents anywhere. Great for lesson plans!

Keynote, Numbers & Pages

Keynote, Numbers & Pages are the Apple versions of presentation, spreadsheet and word processing software. If you have a pc and use Microsoft Powerpoint, Excel and Word the good thing is that they are compatible with each other. This means you can create documents on your Apple device and they will work on your PC too (and vice versa).

The apps are really slick and cost very little (£5.99 each) in comparison to the Microsoft programs.

Here are the links to the official sites

Keynote
Pages
Numbers

Mobile technology update

I have been really pleased in the response to the iPad and I am really exited to see how we are going to use them. I have had one since February and used it in many lessons and the reaction from the students has been very positive. I have bought a visualiser and a VGA adaptor so it can be displayed on the projectors/monitors.

Here are few ideas as to how mobile technology could help us

* Portability: Instead of the traditional rows of students facing a whiteboard, wireless devices encourages the classroom to be more group orientated, with clusters of students carrying out work and research in small teams
* Less paper: These devices can easily hold a complete set of e-Textbooks. This will cut down on storage, having tatty dog eared books to use and perhaps less printing
* More convenient: Textbooks are heavy to carry, thus tablets will lighten the burden
* Multi-purpose: A tablet machine can hold many useful applications, including e-reader, calculator, organiser and so on.
* Multi-media: Creative applications include painting apps, video editing apps and so on. Thus offering a chance for classes to make exciting new ways of learning

And, lastly, have a look at this article and tell me of anyone else in the school who might be interested in being involved.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7933705/how_wireless_educational_technology.html?cat=4

New iPads

Keep your eyes peeled for iPads appearing in your lessons.

The new 3G wireless modem

I am trialling the new wireless hand held modem connection today. It is the size of a small mobile phone and up to 5 devices can connect to it at once, sharing out a 3 g connection to the Internet.

This be perfect for field trips where people can post bog entries, with pictures - live!

All I did herE was take a picture and e mail it to my blog address. It then posts the content live onto the blog.

Sent from my iPad

Worst song ever?

She's hailed as the next best thing but have you heard the song? Rebecca Black's new song "It's friday" has been viewed 29 million+ times. But why? The song is truly awful. This is the power of the Internet.  Anything can be transmitted around the globe almost instantaneously and this has caused two major things to happen to Rebecca Black.  She's now very famous.......but for being rubbish.  Not what she really wanted.

The ICT moral of the story is BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PUT ONLINE! (especially if you're a very bad singer/dancer)

New iPad 2

Just a quick note to tell you that Apple have released details regarding the new iPad 2.  It hasn't changed that much, although it's thinner, quicker and has cameras.  Click on the title above to be taken to the Apple site.  There is a fantastic section about how the iPad can be used in education.......more on that soon......

A new way of Googling

I've just stumbled on a new way of using google that may suit learners that like their searches to be categorized for them like this,

All you have to do is open Google, put your search criteria in (in my case "apple ipad") and then click on "Wonderwheel" which is on the left hand side of the page.........go on......have a look.

It breaks down your search results into categories that are looked at frequently.  This helps you narrow down your searches in a clear way.

A History of Computers

Ever wondered how modern day computing came about?  Well even if you haven't, this really informative infographic shows you how. Techking have created this and it is well worth 5 minutes of your time.

www.Textspace.net

This is a great website that allows to create really good banners, buttons or text.

See the example below for MAXIMUM effect.


LCD Text Generator at TextSpace.net

Copyright Free Images, Sounds and Videos

As you are all aware, when you take an image, sound or video off the Internet, you must make sure that you have permission to take it.  If you don't, then you may well be breaking copyright law.


Here's a helpful list of sites that allow you to take their copyright free files;

Video

http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/gallery/home/royaltyfree.do

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/audio_video/

http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/

http://www.arkive.org/

http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmdownloads.html

http://www.bfi.org.uk/creativearchive/

http://www.open2.net/creativearchive/index.html

https://www.filmclub.org/login/

Audio

http://audio.lgfl.org.uk/

www.findsounds.com

www.freekidsmusic.com

www.1stnurseryrhymes.com

www.freeplaymusic.com

Images

http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/

http://openphoto.net

www.flickr.com

www.freedigitalphotos.net

http://creativecommons.org

http://taggalaxy.de/

http://www.cooliris.com

Withernsea High School is not responsible for the content of external websites.  Special care has been taken to ensure that inappropriate content is restricted.  However, if you see anything inappropriate, contact any member of the ICT staff.

Did you know that the UK is a world leader in special effects? But for how long?

Well did you?  The UK is in fact THE major player in special effects for movies and games. 

Films like Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows had all of its special effects made in the UK.  The latest Grand Theft Auto, amongst many other brilliant games, was made in the UK.

There is a problem though.  Many schools aren't providing a curriculum that teaches the skills needed to keep the UK at the top.  At Withernsea High School we have integrated units within the OCR nationals that allow you to learn how to create graphics, animations, sounds and videos.  So keep up the good work and you may well get a job at the top of the special effects tree.

Click on the title to see an interesting video about this problem.

iPhone, iPod touch and iPad apps

In ICT we are trying to promote the use of mobile devices around the school.  There are thousands upon thousands of mobile applications to download and use to make your learning fun and interesting.

The website appadvice.com is a brilliant resource for Apple apps which categorizes all of the latest and best apps around.  Loads are free too! Click on the picture above to go to the site.

Teach-ICT.com

This site is a must for us at Withernsea High.  It's full of amazing help that has allowed us, and you, to achieve in ICT.

Just have a look at the video tutorials section to see how useful it can be.

We have a three year subscription to the site and many of the resources are password protected - so if you need access to them, just let one of the ICT staff know and they'll sort it for you.

Welcome

Hi and welcome to new the Withernsea high school blog.

Over the next few weeks we will be telling you all sorts of news from the exciting world of ICT.  We will also be offering advice on how to pass your coursework, reviewing the latest ICT developments and make you aware of ICT news events.

Keep checking back to see what we're talking about.