We are very pleased to announce a number of training sessions across the south-west on using the South West Water Espresso Computer Modelling resource. This training session, delivered by Espresso, will allow delegates to explore the range of resources available as well as gain ideas of how to implement them into planning and use them creatively across the curriculum. The course will run for half a day, including plenty of time for ‘hands on’ exploration of the module.The morning session runs from 9am to 12pm and is repeated in the afternoon from 1pm to 4pm.

This session is open to any classroom teacher or subject leader currently working within a primary school. It will particularly interest those with responsibility for Maths, ICT or Geography.

Click here to find out more and learn how to book.

I'm fascinated by the birdbox webcams from the Birdbox Project. Wonderful to look in the birdbox at Weston Park School and see the Blue Tits sitting on their nest. I keep checking, waiting for the parents to move from the nest, so I can see how many eggs they have...she has just moved. They have hatched! Seven..eight little hungry chicks!

I came across a fabulous little Hue HD webcam in the animation workshop with Oscar Stringer yesterday. They are very small, and very cheap (at less than £20) When teamed up with I Can Animate and Windows Movie Maker we were getting some fabulous animations. A great little device that almost has the picture definition of a visualiser (on a flexible mount, it almost suggests itself as a mini-visualiser). Lets just say it compares very well to its more portly blue rival. Highly recommended.

Confused about how to arrange your ICT scheme of work in school? Have a look at the KentEd ICT Themes. When you see the five themes as an overview, you can see that it makes wonderful sense. Use this, as KentEd say, to maximise opportunities to embed ICT in the curriculum and to make use of new technologies.

I came across the fantastic free suite of tools called Creaza . Don't know how I could have missed Creaza at BETT , but I did. It comprises four fantastic tools: Mindomo which is a mindmapping tool; See this video demo clip about Cartoonist the cartoon drawing tool; Movie Editor has ready-made video and sound clips and uses movie editing conventions. With Audio Editor can splice together your own version of a newscast, a radio commercial, or a radio interlude, play it back later. Fantastic free tools from this Norwegian company which could be integrated into your learning platform. Truly amazing!

There are some really useful outward-facing Merlin sites now. Swindon LA are using Merlin for their site, as are Bristol LA. The Public Shared Places are coming soon. Have a look at SEN and Languages. Here is the Public Shared Place homepage if you have a Merlin login. These links should work soon:

www.merlin.swgfl.org.uk/psp

www.merlin.swgfl.org.uk/sen 

www.merlin.swgfl.org.uk/languages

www.merlin.swgfl.org.uk/functionalskills

www.merlin.swgfl.org.uk/vc

The National Education Network has a wealth of free resources to support the curriculum. Click here to select the subject and key stage you are interested in. If you are a subject coordinator looking for ICT-based resources, why not click here for an updated list via RSS...or you may want to look at the PDF below.

NEN_Brochure.pdf (1.14 mb)