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From the Kent education blog, I found out about these Flash- based engaging maths ITPs, developed by Coventry LA. They include activities in money, bingo, shape and space and many more. I found that they work best when saved to your pc, then opened.

There is still time to book onto the free (to Shropshire schools) e-safety conference, next Tuesday, 8th July at Albrighton Hall, nr Shrewsbury. The keynote speaker will be Karl Hopwood, whose bio reads
‘He has been involved with internet safety projects with Becta for a number of years now and worked on the initial pilot of the internet proficiency pack. E-safety had a high priority in the school and Karl has run a number of successful workshops for parents and children on this subject. He works with the local authority in Wiltshire to develop guidance materials relating to school and home Internet safety. Karl is now an independent e-safety consultant and is currently supporting Childnet International as one of their trustees. His work involves creating best practice and policy about developing e-safety guidance, and he has given presentations at a number of national and international events including the Innovative Teacher’s Forum and more recently at the Young People in the Internet and Mobile Age conference in Cairo. Karl is working for a number of different organisations now including Becta, CEOP and The South West Grid for Learning.’
In addition, there will be time for discussion, an introduction to the long-awaited WMNet e-safety materials and some examples of good practice from Shropshrie schools.
In the afternoon, we are holding a content exhibition, which will give schools a chance to see the type of content and technology available to them, and will also give the LA a chance to findout what type of content schools would like to see included on the Learning Gateway. 
to book onto the course, contact CPD@shropshire.gov.uk

As part of a course I was running last night, I had cause to revisit Picasa, Google’s free image manipulation software, and I must say that it was well worth revisiting. I had forgotten how powerful it is. A particular favourite is the ‘collage’ facility, which enable you to take a number of images and display them in a number of  interesting ways. So - just a reminder - if you haven’t used Picasa for a while, or you have never used it and are in need of some imaging software, have a go! You can download the software from http://picasa.google.com

NumberGym provides a set of extremely useful maths tools and activities for primary maths, especially good for use with an interactive board. Shropshire schools can download an example of their ‘Digit Counters’ file - SMART users from here, Activ users from here. Well worth a look.

I was recently asked where to get film clips/trailers from the net. Came up with the following:

http://creative.bfi.org.uk/titles/ - British film institute
http://www.imdb.com/ - scroll down to the bottom of the page and there’s a link for ‘trailers’, which can be accessed via an index
Obviously, http://www.youtube.com (using our friend www.zamzar.com to get it to the children)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/

Health warning! All of these site will need checking! The videos should either be downloaded (copyright permitting!) or links should be made directly to that video. I wouldn’t necessarily want young children to be browsing these sites in school!
If you know of any other useful sites- please share

Through the  ‘Cool Cat Teacher’ blog, I found out about this very accessible (and cool!) wiki at http://k12learning20.wikispaces.com which is designed to deliver a course on Web 2.0 technologies. Anyone can browse and its really worth a look for anyone who wants to find out more about the basics of these new technologies. The wiki is very much enhanced by the Common Craft videos, which explain Web 2.0 features brilliantly.

Billy from Thomas Adams has uploaded all his x-games resources to the KS4 documents section within the ICT area of the new Shropshire Learning Gateway.  These resources are only available to Shropshire schools:

https://www.shropshirelg.net/curriculum/foundsubjects/ict/secondary/Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2fcurriculum%2ffoundsubjects%2fict%2fsecondary%2fDocuments%2fKS4%2fX%20Games&FolderCTID=&View=%7b00AB74E3%2d6FA2%2d4181%2dB4B3%2dEFCD662FBD24%7d

These resources support the use of an xbox to provide evidence towards the ASDAN qualification at KS4.

Please click the following link to view the Diploma in IT newsletter for June 2008. www.e-skills.com/diplomanewsjune08

Creativity and E-Learning in the Classroom Conference
Key-note Speaker: Professor Stephen Heppell

‘For the times they are a-changin’

With so many new education websites springing up through the concrete vastness of the web, you could spend your life sorting through the rubble. Cue Professor Stephen Heppell: the superhero of e-learning. Acclaimed by The Guardian as ‘Europe’s leading online education guru’ and heralded by Microsoft as ‘Europe’s leading online education expert.’

Young people embrace technology and creativity, and have been hungry for change, so as Professor Heppell puts it: “We are pushing against an open door.”

“Creativities’ time has come”
All over the world Schools are moving from generic education, to personalized, unique, individual learning, in which staff and students can thrive. We are moving away from factory-like schools, corridor-like learning, to wide open multi-functional spaces. What space is more open? More diversified? More democratic and international than the internet? None.

Professor Heppell says: “When you look at something, you stop seeing it: it’s like that with schools.” It is also like that with education in general. This change and shift that we are just easing ourselves into is not “a change for changes sake”. It is essential. Our place in the world as a country that is regarded highly for its education standards is slowly slipping. If we use an analogy form the talk: think of which countries are world leaders in terms of the film industry. Now what about the car industry? Or fashion? Each time you are probably thinking of fewer countries than you have fingers, a handful for each industry. The race to be a world leader in education will produce a few countries: India, China, Turkey.  Now, is a crucial shift in education which will help us decide if we will be one of those world leaders. This depends on our attitudes to learning, and willingness to adapt to these changes.

Trying New Ideas
Here are some examples of what other learning educators are doing around the world:
•    Leasowes School in Dudley, studies one GCSE per month.
•    An Australian School has students from 11 years old sit in on 4 hours of lectures per week at a nearby University.
•    Bilston Academy has quiet cafes and the staffroom if for both staff and students.
•    At a school in Yorkshire, they have introduced “The Praise Pod”: this works in a similar way to Heads’ commendations, when a student(s) has done well they get interviewed and it becomes a podcast and/or video, which they can then take home that day.
•    A school in the Caribbean has students sit on both interview panels and lesson observations.
•    Most local businesses will showcase students work if possible: for example, cinemas can show videos of students work before the main film, TV shops can broadcast them, even simply turning a projector onto a window at the end of the school day is a great way of broadcasting to the local community the activities and achievements of the students.
•    Some schools have also introduced a Board of Good Work to celebrate and look into how to encourage students to celebrate their achievements.

Due to a major purchasing error (too many zero’s on the end of the order!) we have several thousand more QX5 Microscopes than we need for the immediate future. We have therefore decided to offer a fantastic saving on the list price to help us reduce stocks. Until the end of July 2008 we would like to offer you the QX5 microscope at the prices below:

1 to 24            £59 each ex vat
25 and over     £49 each ex vat

As you can see this represents a fantastic saving against list price and is ‘whilst stocks last’ please feel free to forward this offer to your schools. Should you wish to proceed please get in touch with me directly to I can ensure your discount. This is not an end of life offer.

Kind regards

Geraint Lewis
Regional Manager | TAG Learning

www.taglearning.com/