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inspirED is a collection of news and stories to inspire anyone interested in innovative approaches to teaching and learning, updated three times a year. The first issue is now online at inspired.futurelab.org.uk, and the next will be available in January. To subscribe for e-mail reminders please e-mail inspired@futurelab.org.uk with your name, e-mail address and organisation.
inspirED is a collection of news and stories to inspire anyone interested in innovative approaches to teaching and learning, updated three times a year. The first issue is now online at inspired.futurelab.org.uk, and the next will be available in January. To subscribe for e-mail reminders please e-mail inspired@futurelab.org.uk with your name, e-mail address and organisation.

Andy from ConnectED demonstrated an impressive little gadget that allows media from a variety of sources including vhs players to be easily converted to mpeg format.  The gadget is the ‘Pinnacle video transfer’  and what is even more impressive is that the gadget can then save directly to usb memory pens.  Hopefully this is another step in allowing us to be more creative, discerning and flexible in our use of media in the classroom.  And the cost…only £99!  Click here to see the details on ConnectED’s website.

Flash is the ultimate tool for creating animations that are easily transferred to the web.  Even though it is industry-standard it can be used at any level and we’ve seen some superb examples from people of all ages and abilities.

Web 2.0 applications are catching up though, and here’s one I found that looks as though it is going to give plenty of opportunities for developing simple animations.  Called AjaxAnimator it is still in Beta (but so are plenty of other everyday applications) so expect a few bugs.  It’s great fun to play with though, and certainly gets the principles of animation over without having to install costly applications on a computer.  All you need is a browser (they suggest Firefox is best) and you’re set to go.

Those doing work on Picasso might be interested in Mr. Picassohead, a site that allows you to create your own masterpiece in the style of the great master.  Using drag and drop onscreen, pupils can quickly and easily create those crazy portraits (with both eyes on one side - you know the ones) and raise discussion points about what makes a great piece of art.  The pictures they create might generate starting-points for a number of activities in creative or descriptive writing, including screendumps^* of their own images alongside those of others to discuss the differences. They might try to replicate some of their onscreen designs on paper, or even using art software such as the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, Photoshop, Paint.net, 2Paint a Picture, Doozla …. the list could go on into Web 2.0 apps like Splashup or Aviary though there might be problems with registering (Splashup requires no registration).

Add a comment to this post with your favourite art software and suggest ways you might use it, or even share your favourite sites for creative stimulus.

^*Use the printscreen key or a screengrabber such as Gadwin Printscreen, or on a Mac use Cmd-shift-4.

With the expanded ICT/E-learning team now in place and with a poke from Dale I have created an it4L account on Twitter, all posts from this blog will be tweeted via the it4L account. To follow it4L tweets, go to http://twitter.com/it4L and if you have an account click the ‘follow’ button.  More information on twitter can be found here.

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.

Terry Freedman is carrying out a survey of pupil use of Social Networks, if you have some time can you try and get your pupils to complete his survey.

At the ICT at KS2 course the other day, we looked at Google docs and realised that the promised presentation tool has arrived. It is now possible for one or more people to create a presentation at the same time or at different times, online. The general feeling was that this could be enormously useful to use with children, though to save confusion it would be better if each person worked on a different section or even slide of the presentation. There are a number of themes available (I like ‘blackboard’), though no transition choices. You can run the presentation from Google docs or export to PowerPoint. (You can also import from PowerPoint).
If you want to use Google docs, users need to sign up for a username and password. (You could , as suggested by a course member, sign up for an account per computer in your suite).

Congratulations to all at Clunbury Primary School! They have won the enormously prestigous ‘Best Whole School (Primary)’ award at the BECTA Excellence in ICT awards 2007, after a rigorous judging process. Well done to all.

This presentation posted on TeacherTube is really worth a look - gives a really clear message on how and why teachers should use new technologies with their classes.

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