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At the BETT show we spent some time looking at eblocks (www.eblocks.net), a system which uses a a variety of cubes to input information into a computer and work on literacy, numeracy and other activities. The great strength of this system is the collaborative and social nature of this, and it made me think of how important that co-operation is in learning. How can we include this sense of working together in our everyday ICT teaching?

If you are looking for programmable toys, it is worth looking at ‘Go-Robo’ programmable robots. This includes ‘Wrex the Dawg’ robot (aimed at Year 3/4)which can be controlled directly from a computer,  from a remote control or instructions can be downloaded and run directly from the robot (up to 12 sequences of 80 instructions each). More information at www.Q4technologies.com
Another type of control equipment we liked at BETT were Logiblocks (www.logiblocks.com) – colour coded blocks which contain a circuit board which enables them to perform a specific functionsuch as input, output. Children can design their systems on screen with their drag and drop LogiCD software and then make their designs for real with the physical blocks.
Sherston have an interesting new adventure game, aimed at KS2 pupils. It is called ‘Return to Mechania’ and all the challenges the pupils have to solve are based on D&T problems, such as cams, levers or cogs.
At BETT we saw a useful little hand-held USB microscope, available for £75 from Vernier International. From what we saw, the images were of good quality.

A number of people have asked how children can email their teacher through the primary SLG product, as you will have noticed that currently the teacher does not appear on the drop down list. This, by the way, will change shortly, but in the short term, teachers can email pupils from their SLG account and pupils can respond using the reply button.

An increasing number of schools are using text messaging systems to communicate with their parents. It enables schools to send messages to the parents of all children in a school (e.g. school closed because of snow) or to a single child (e.g. your child has done exceptionally well in maths today). One company that  provides this service, used in Shropshire schools, is Teachers2Parents (www.teachers2parents.co.uk) and we hope that they will be at the ICT conference on March 26th at Albrighton Hall.

At our graphics course yesterday, I realised that it would be worth reminding primary schools of some software that is available to help them deliver work on images in the curriculum (and which would also be useful for teachers in using images on the SLG, in blogs etc).  A good range of software could be:
Logotron’s Revelation  Natural Art for creating images
Paint.net (free!) for image manipulation
Picasa (also free) for image manipulation and organisation
Photostory 3 (free again) for creating photo presentations
Comic Life (available to Shropshire schools via the Shropshire Learning Gateway)
MS Movie Maker (free!)

John Rowe of St Mary’s Albrighton has drawn our attention to the interactive Smart Notebook ITP collection at www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/math/index.php?category_id=388. This is an excellent resource found by his school Maths Specialist Margaret Chapman (they are part of the maths specialist pathfinder).
What this does is simple yet effective. The ITP Collection File allows the user to annotate an ITP on a smartboard and interact with it at the same time – as you know, the annotations are lost once the interactive element of the ITP is reloaded. The most irritating thing about using ITPs on smartboard.
Thank you John and Margaret!

A number of schools have asked us about alternatives to CD or tape listening stations. Storyphones (www.storyphones.co.uk) fulfil this requirement –a set of 6 robust wireless headphones which play mp3 files independently or all together. You can access stories in mp3 format from the Storyphone library or children can record their own stories, or even download from the Net. The system is pricey, but very versatile and the headphones are robust enough to withstand the primary environment!

www.earlyvision.co.uk  make early years software which provides high quality video stimulus for role play, including subjects as diverse as a Chinese take away or a garage. The videos are shot from a number ofperspectives, so children get to see aspects of the areas they would normally be excluded from. The DVDs also include ideas for activities and many resources to use as part of the role play area. Well worth a look!

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At the BETT Show, we liked the TaskMagic2 software (www.taskmagic.co.uk), which enables teachers (and, more importantly in my view) children, to create interactive word games. It is aimed at MFL teachers but can be used to reinforce any vocabulary/word level activity. Simply input the words or sentences, choose the type of activity and the type of game and it is ready in a flash. Examples of the types of games on offer are pelmanism, drag and match, picture reveal, next letter and maze activities.