Fuse Creator

Want to create high-quality, interactive activities for your students, but don't have a degree in computer programming? Well, now you don't need one.
Fuse Creator will help you to create engaging interactive content, quickly and easily, which you can use over and over on your school or personal computers, websites and VLEs.

Game Maker

Do you want to develop computer games without spending countless hours learning how to become a programmer? Game Maker allows you to make exciting computer games, without the need to write a single line of code.
Using easy to learn drag-and-drop actions, you can create professional looking games within very little time. There is a built-in programming language, for more experienced users, which gives you the full flexibility of creating games with Game Maker. Game Maker is available free of charge. Making games with Game Maker is a lot of fun.

Stats4Schools

Looking for large data sets? Stats4schools is managed by the independent Offcie for National Statistics and contains thousands of records and data. Following the launch of the NS Renewed Framework for ICT and the change of emphasis in some of the Programmes of Study, in particular "Exploring Ideas and manipulating information"- "manipulating and processing large quantities of data efficiently" ICT teachers are starting to look for a source of "large data sets", the "stats4schools" site is an excellent place to start!

ICT BETT Show, Olympia 2008

Another BETT show has been and gone at Kensington Olympia. Have a look at what has caught my eye this year at the show. My video features clips of new mobile technology such as the iPod Touch, Asus Minibook and Interactive Whiteboard Hardware. I also have clips of new robotic technology, a wide range of visualisers and electronic voting systems. To compare it with last year's show have a look at my BETT Show 2007 on YouTube post.

If you have never been to BETT then I hope this gives you a flavour of what it is like and what you are likely to find there. Visit the Bett Show website to find out more about the event and register for 2009!

Scratch

Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.
This downloadable web tool has huge educational potential and offers fun ways to also teach programming and control.

KS3 ICT Pilot test preparation - starters

A link to some good resources for preparing pupils for the forthcoming KS3 ICT pilot tests. Yes, online assessment remains an education agenda for the future, the pilot is still very important and will be going ahead.
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/index.cfm?s=1&m=1488&p=995,index

These resources have been developed by the Birmingham Grid for Learning.

BETT Show 2007 on YouTube

The BETT show in Olympia is the showcase for ICT Education in UK. A chance to find out what is new and emerging in the world of ICT Education. This year I took my video camera to capture some of the event and have shared it with you on YouTube. If you have never been to the show then this video might give you inspiration to go next year!



To find out more visit the BETT show website: BETT Show
BETT is the world's leading educational information & communications technologies (ICT) event, attracting 600 educational suppliers and over 28000 visitors, and bringing together the global teaching and learning community for four days of innovations and inspirations

Content Generator

Create fun starters and plenaries using this Flash content generator. The results can be uploaded to your Internet or Intranet website.

YacaPaca

Chalkface provide a wide range of assessment tools for KS3 and KS4. Click on the "Yacapaka" link to create an account.

Revise ICT

This link is to a very useful site for everything ICT. It contains excellent resources for preparing pupils for the new ICT KS3 tests, DiDA, revised KS3 STUs and a range of application tutorials. A real one-stop shop for ICT teachers.

Run it on your memory stick, key drive or your IPod

An excellent Blog set up to provide links and information about portable software applications. Carry your email client software, web browser, ftp client, calender, file manager even your word processor and spreadsheet software around on any portable device: Memory stick, mp3 player. Some great ideas. Most of the software is open source and easy to install - it can run independently of the computer's registry files and operating system. Very convenient if you are moving information around from computer to computer; home to school; home to office; office to office. Brilliant! (The screen capture shows the email client software Portable Thunderbird 1.5.05 a small 5Mb install and you will be abele to take you email wherever you go!)

KS3 ICT Test Preparation

The new KS3 ICT tests require pupils to work with unfamiliar application environments. To help them prepare there are a few on-line (free) spreadsheets, wordprocessors and database applications they can use:

Zoho Creator - On-line database application

Google Spreadsheets and Docs - On-line spreadsheet and wordprocessor applications (Formerly Writely)

All the above allow users to upload existing files and edit them within the new environment.

Podcasting Tools

Two excellent tools for podcasting:
Solidcasts
Want to create a Podcast of your own? This site enables you to upload up to 100Mb of sound files and creates all the xml and rss code needed to allow you to publish them for download via any Podcasting software.



Audio network
This is an great source of sound clips, music and effects to give your Podcasts a professional feel. The sounds aren't cheap but they are good....
I have created a short 45 second example sound file using Audacity and uploaded it using Solidcasts here:


RSS or go direct to the file here: demo.mp3

Pre-prepared VLE Content

With schools now developing Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) for their pupils demand is increasing for high quality content. Most teachers don't have the time or energy to create new resources but many SCORM compliant solutions are being created and are available for download on to VLEs:
Synergy Learning UK Moodle Partner
STW IT Learning Centre
DiDA Courseware
e-Subjects.co.uk - Free Moodle Courses
Skool
Nelson-Thornes

Photo Story

Presentation software that is easy to use - create eye-catching effects with ease. Slideshows of still images can be saved as audio/video files (.avi .mpeg etc). Great for animation effects.

Sound and Video Resources

Useful resource sites for sound and video:

Moviewavs - contains freely downloadable sound files from TV shows and Films
SmokeCDs - free music samples in MP3 sound file format
Becta Digital Video Award - winners video clips
BritishPathe - British Pathe news archive
iStopMotion - animation examples in education
BT Education - Internet Radio kit for schools
Digital Stories - Mini movies from the BBC. Films made by local people using photos, video clips and personal items to tell stories from their lives.
Digital Video - a short course in how to make digital video
Onion Street - The BBC music room, the place to make, talk and listen to music
E-Jay - Music making software
Freesound Project - free sounds
f7sound.com - more free sounds
BookBox - Hear and see authors reading extracts from their books

Podcasting in schools

A useful link to a site that demonstrates how podcasts can be used in school.

http://www.recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/

An example site with Digital Stories made by secondary aged school children in America.


Radiowaves is an Education company providing services to enable you to publish pupils audio/video work on-line:

1. To listen to the stations created by students in UK schools click on the links below:
Special Schools
Hillside School in Fife
Ashleigh Air in Tyne and Wear
Great Ormond Street Hospital School in London
Radio Riverside a Study Support Centre in Cleveland

Full List of all schools Radiowaves sites

2. To read the Learning Teaching Scotland case study on Hillside's
Radiowaves activity click here:


3. To take part in Videowaves beta go to:
http://beta.videowaves.co.uk/login.asp

The password you need is videotrial

Useful KS4 ICT Links

http://dida.nwlg.org/
http://www.teach-ict.com/gcsehome.htm
http://www.ewart.org.uk/
http://www.ictgcse.org.uk/
http://www.eastbourne-tech-coll.e-sussex.sch.uk/ict_homepage.htm
http://www.thekjs.essex.sch.uk/yates/index.html
http://www.glengormleyhigh.com/html/pupil_work/
ict_revision/ict_revision.htm
http://www.klbschool.org.uk/ict/gcse/theory/
http://www.statpac.com/surveys/index.htm
http://www.didcotgirls.oxon.sch.uk/depts/it/gcse

OCR Nationals

OCR Nationals ICT Level 2 Website

UNIT 1 Sample Project