Safer Internet Day/Week 2013

'Safer Internet Day', which is hosted by Insafe and co-founded by the European Commission is on Tuesday 5^th February this year. The ICT department is having a 'Safer Internet Day' week, where each ICT class will have one ICT lesson dedicated to it. This year the theme is 'Rights and Responsibilities' with the slogan 'Connect with Respect'.  You can have a look at our lesson plan here if you wish here

 

Some of our school reporters have written some questions for Louise Mitchin, the BBC Breakfast news presenter. This will be live on the BBC website on Tuesday and we shall add a link to the blog page above.

 

To show our support we are on the UK Safer Internet Centre supporters page here

Some of our year 9 pupils have also entered a radio broadcast competition; the winners will be announced on the UK 'Safer Internet Day' live radio broadcast show at 8:00pm. The show is broadcasted from 9:00am to 9:00pm and if you want to listen to it here is the link:. This will also be broadcasted in the piazza at lunchtime on Tuesday. 

Please show your support by mentioning 'Safer Internet Day' to your tutor group, if you want to see what is going on in lessons have a look on twitter  #WILDERNSID2013.

ICT Department  

New CIDA SPB

The new actual SPBs are now online

http://www.edexcel.com/quals/cida/spbs/Pages/default.aspx

Take a look

Britain in the snow seen from above

Much of the UK experienced disruption as a result of snow and icy weather during the last two weeks.

This image, taken by Nasa's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on its Terra satellite, captured Britain blanketed in white on Saturday 26 January.

Nasa image courtesy of Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response

WOW 28.1.12

Wow of the week comes to us thanks to Caroline James and is all about

'Safer Internet Day' on the 5th February.

The theme this year is 'Rights and Responsibilities' with the slogan
'Connect with Respect'. As Internet users, children have rights online
and have responsibilities too. This weeks WOW session is on the topic
on whether or not parents have the responsibility to be checking and
monitoring their children's online activities.        .

Claire Perkins, a government adviser, believes that is a parent's
responsibility to check their children's online activities. She
believes that  they should be checking texts, Twitter and be friends
on Facebook so it's easier to see what's going on.

Read this news story about this topic. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/21141561

Discuss:
Do you believe that parents should check your Facebook account,
Twitter account or texts?
Do you believe that your parents or family should monitor what website
you access?
Are you friends with your parents or family on any social network site?
Do your parents know what websites you go on / what social network
accounts you have?

Pupils can also discuss what rights and responsibilities they have
online. Here is a link to help 'Rights and Responsibilities' -
http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/About%20Cybersmart/Newsroom/Annual%20Events/Safer%20Internet%20Day%202013/SID2013%20-%20Connect%20with%20respect.aspx

If you have time can you also please promote 'Safer Internet Day'.
Pupils will be having one ICT lesson next week dedicated on the theme
of 'Rights and Responsibilities' online.

Here is a promotional video for the 'Safer Internet Day'    -

A huge thanks to Caroline and a reminder that if you think there is a
news story or current event linked to your subject that would make a
great WOW then please let me know and I will gladly try and include
it!

Links and Apps Bucket List

Web 2.0 Sites

• 9 Slides - A fantastic site for adding narration or video to a wide variety of presentations.
• 19 Pencils - A great free site for teachers to curate the web and find resources to add to a customized class web page.
• Animoto - One of the most popular sites for education for creating stunning videos and presentations.
• Biteslide - A wonderful free site w/ educational portal for students to create digital scrapbooks and projects.
• BoomWriter - An amazing site for students to create digital books in a safe/secure environment.  These books are then published and can be ordered.  Also, has an educational portal where teachers can create classes and student accounts.
• ClassBadges - A new site for teachers to award digital badges for student accomplishments.
• ClassDojo - A terrific web 2.0 sites for teachers to manage student behavior in a fun innovative way.
• Edshelf - A wonderful site for finding, curating, and reviewing educational web tools.
• Glogster EDU - One of the most popular Web 2.0 sites around for creating interactive posters/projects w/ educational portal.
• Kidblog - A safe secure way for students to create and learn how to blog.
• MentorMob - An innovative site for curating the web into learning playlists to help support guided learning.
• Meograph - A new site for 4 Dimensional digital storytelling.
• PowToon - A fantastic new site for creating stunning animated presentations.
• SpellingCity - The best site around w/ educational portal for teachers to create Vocabulary & Spelling lists for students and integrate them into educational games.
• VoiceThread - Might be the most popular Web 2.0 site around ideal for digital storytelling.
     

Educational iOS Apps

• The Answer Pad - An amazing web tool and iPad app for capturing and assessing student data.
• Brainstormer - A great iOS app for brainstorming in a visual way that is ideal for generating writing prompts and more.
• Doceri - The perfect all-in-one solution for the iPad that allows teachers/students to create on an interactive whiteboard then record/screencast.
• Educreations - A great free app/web tool to find and create video lessons.
• Experience Life - A beautiful interactive iPad app that is ideal for learning about the different systems inside the body.  Great for MS/HS Science/Biology teachers.
• FluencyFinder - The best iOS Reading Assessment app for teachers.  Ideal for grades 1st-8th w/ instant real-time feedback as well.  New updates will include questions for Reading Comprehension.
• Go Class - A excellent and robust web tool/iPad app for teachers to create lessons on an iPad and share w/ their students as well as track student progress for instant feedback.
• The Grading Game - A fun iOS app to help strengthen one's grammar and writing skills.
• Level It Books - The perfect iOS app for scanning a book barcode to get a Reading Level.
• Nearpod - One of the best all-in-one solutions for the iPad that helps teachers engage and share presentations w/ students.
• Sentence Builder - A iOS app for El Ed students to help build/strengthen their grammar/writing skills.
• Show Me - A great free iPad app for creating and recording tutorials/lessons.
• Story Patch - A fantastic iPad app for digital storytelling that teaches the different parts of a story.
• Teachers Tech - A wonderful iOS app for teachers to find "how to" tutorials/videos on educational Web 2.0 technologies.
• Timeline Maker - A great iPad app for creating timelines.
• Toontastic - One of my favorite free iPad apps to use w/ kids to create to digital stories.
    

Digital Videos in the Classroom

While there are a number of paid solutions for finding educational videos such as Discovery Streaming (United Streaming) or BrainPOP, there are a number for excellent free solutions as well.

• Backpack TV - A new site for finding educational videos on a wide variety of subjects.
• Explania - A great site for finding educational and instructional animated videos.
• Knowmia - A fantastic place to create and find 1000's of educational lessons.
• Mobento - A terrific place to find educational videos w/ the added ability to search for spoken words inside a video.
• Neok12 - One of the best places to find educational videos, lessons, and games.
• WatchKnowLearn - A great free site similar to Discovery Streaming for finding educational K-12 videos.
• YouTube Teachers - YouTube offers a educational portal for teachers for finding educational videos.
    

Images for Education

• 3D Toad - A new site for finding interactive educational 3D images.
• Humanline - A terrific new site for finding royalty free educational images.
• Pics4Learning - One of the most popular places for finding images to use in education.
    

Search Engines

Students browsing the internet for information can be a very tricky issue when having to deal w/ CIPA/COPPA compliance.  That's why a lot of schools use a paid solution such as Nettrekker or something like that.  However, there are some nice free alternatives that can be used in a school setting.

• KidRex - A safe search engine for kids powered by Google.
• Sweet Search - My favorite safe search engine to use by students.
• Top Marks - A nice place to find educational web content.
     

Content Management Systems

There are a ton of paid CMS solutions that are ideal for education such as Blackboard.  However, this can get rather expensive for most districts.  That being said there are some nice free alternatives that are being used in schools throughout the world.

• Edmodo - A free CMS/Social Network combined into one, made just for education.
• Moodle - Probably the most popular free CMS used in schools.
    

Mobile Phones in Education|

• Cel.ly - A great way to use phones in education such as taking notes, messaging, and more.
• Remind101 - A safe/secure way to text message students and parents.
• SendHub - A fantastic secure way to send group messages to staff, students, and parents.

By DAVID KAPULER'S 

Mapping The Future Of Education Technology

If it’s true that 65% of today’s grade school students will work in jobs that don’t exist yet, then we better get ready for some drastically different learning environments.

Add this massive infographic to the recent discussion of what education will look like in 2020--and beyond. Designed by Michell Zappa’s Envisioning Technology (which also created that fantastic interactive infographic mapping the future of technology), this chart maps innovations in education technology for the next few decades.

It illustrates a shift from a classroom-centered approach toward an increasingly virtual set of learning environments. Of course the most eye-popping statistic is the idea that 65% of today’s grade-school children will end up at jobs that haven’t been invented yet. Hence the need for looking forward to try to anticipate how technologies might evolve and how we should expect to incorporate them into our schools.

"Despite its inherently speculative nature," the graphic’s creators write, "the driving trends behind the technologies can already be observed, meaning it’s a matter of time before these scenarios start panning out in learning environments around the world."

Tango thing to try

Two Word Tango.mp3 Listen on Posterous

A colleague saw this in a lesson that she observed - sound file - give the pupils a topic - ie: web design and each time the music stops a kid has to say a word related to that topic.

Works really well