The new guidelines from Ofsted are now upon us, with an increased emphasis on e-safety. Ofsted will now be looking out for signs that schools have policies and procedures in place that aim to protect and educate staff and pupils in the safe use of technology. Here at Education Reach we are encouraging schools to [...]
Having heard quite a bit about geocaching over the last year, I thought I would give it a go this summer holiday. I had watched a few presentations on it at various TeachMeets, followed a few tweets about it and spoken to a few friends about what was required. The whole concept is quite exciting [...]
I have just completed the most interesting and varied year of my career to date and now that it’s summer, I can finally get off the rollercoaster and enjoy a few weeks of calm. I have been employed for two days a week as acting head of ICT in a secondary school. Not to go [...]
Reach into the Toolbox #9 The Photosynth tools from Microsoft allow you to create visually stunning photographs from single images which are then ‘stitched’ together. The example below was taken by my colleague Steph as we left the BETT show in January 2012. A view of BETT 2012 on Wednesday evening as the last visitors were leaving. [...]
Reach into the Toolbox #8 Wallwisher in an online noticeboard which can be filled with ideas, thoughts, notes, opinions, facts etc by everyone and anyone. It’s a bit like sticking post-it notes onto a big sheet of paper. You can also post links to pictures, videos, Powerpoint presentations, spreadsheets and PDF documents. If planning to [...]
Reach into the Toolbox #7 The Teacher Training Video website has been created by Russell Stannard, a principal teaching fellow at the University of Warwick working in the Center for Applied Linguistics. He has created a wide range of videos to help students and educators learn how to use new technology tools and apply them in the [...]
Reach into the Toolbox #6 I must begin with week’s blog with a confession – I am absolutely rubbish at art or anything remotely artistic, I know nothing, I am completely incompetent. At primary school my teacher had to salvage all of my efforts to make them look like something recognisable. My secondary school art [...]
Reach into the Toolbox #5 I know this is old hat…..I know Photostory has been around for years…. but I absolutely love this free download from Microsoft. This simple wizard based programme allows you to upload and edit images, add text, narration and music as well as play with image transitions and effects. The resulting effect is [...]
Reach into the Toolbox #4 Wordle allows you to create “word clouds” from text that you provide: just copy and paste some text into the text box and press Go! Wordle uses the number of times a word appears in a text to determine its relative size – the more frequent the word, the larger it [...]
Reach into the Toolbox #3 This week’s offering from Education Reach is a website called Ideas to Inspire which highlights not just one tool, but a variety of tools and ideas about using ICT in the classroom to enhance, inspire and motivate (you and your pupils!). Contributions to each category have come from teachers all over the [...]
