Easter holidays

Evening bloggers, we are home from skiing in Austria and not a broken bone between us! Austria is a wonderful country so clean and welcoming but the internet and phone service proved to be poor around the mountains.  Mobile phones were very handy to take pictures and videos of each other skiing or attempting to ski in my case! We did have a few breakages when some pupils fell over with their smart phones in their pockets and one phone drown in a water bottle leak! All photos have been shared on Facebook or what's app, as these were the free ways to view eat others pictures.  Hope you are all well bloggers, speak soon.

Follies first podcast

Listen to the recording about my ICT experience at Swansea Met on a Wednesday evening! Listen to this episode
Hopefully I will be able to make more interesting and funny podcasts with the pupils at school, maybe some horrible histories.

Rosacea Suffers

For those who suffer from Rosacea, there is something new to the market that appears to be a miracle cure.  Dermalex cream worked for me after one day, I will keep you updated if the cream continues to work.

Making Money

What do you do with all of your unwanted items?  A good friend of mine advised me to sell it all through Music Magpie.  It was so easy, set up an account, scan the bar codes of any unwanted items, Music Magpie send you an address label, fix the label to your parcel and take to the nearest shop and send store.  There is also a free app for your iphone or smart phone.  Music Magpie send you a cheque or credit your account, brilliant!  You can also use it for unwanted items in school!

School Whiteboards and Software

Morning bloggers,I have found a range of software that is available at my school some of which I would like to share with you.  On each staff members desktop via the windows button is a folder that directs you to whitboards.

Desktop

I was very surprised to see the different software for many of the boards that are used in school.

Smartboard

 Visualiser

 

 

ClassComm 5

This has similar features to the Promethean software and allows you to create flipcharts and import work.  It alos has a browser feature and allows you to share resources. 

 

 

 

 

 

A visualiser is a tool used by mant staff as an easy way of highlighting pupils work on the whiteboard.

Just look

Found lots of information about the whiteboards used in school today.  Lots of information on my desktop, things that I have ignored through lack of time or lack of knowledge!  Screenshots to follow.  Have a good weekend bloggers.

Homework

Make some screenshots of promethean boards activinspire software and notebook for smartboards.

Whiteboards

Smartboards

Smartboards are used mainly with the Enhanced Resource Provision department as they are a touch screen board that is easily accessible to teachers and students.  These boards are interactive and the special needs department feel they are the best board for learning in that specific area.  The smartboards are the most expensive boards that we have in this school and this can be seen as a disadvantage when the budget is considered.  The Smartboard can cost around £2500.



Smartboard 

Ebeam
Ebeam boards are used in our mainstream classrooms and these were solely used for the price.  They are half the cost of the Smartboard and are not as interactive.  They do not have a touchscreen, instead staff use a pen as a clicker.  These pens can often become misplaced and are expensive to replace.  The Ebeam board can cost around £700.



Ebeam

Promethean Boards

Promethean boards were the first electronic whiteboards to have in the school that I work at. They were the only boards that were available at the time they were installed.  They cost around £1500 to buy and so they are not the cheapest available.  They are not interactive but can be used with a pen or clicker.

Promethean



ICT and Education

• Education

According to Ask.com we need an education in order to be well rounded individuals. We may not always like the classes we take in school but they will help mold us. Education is key to becoming successful.  Most of us will learn through the education system that is put into place by the Welsh Government.  The National curriculum is regulated by Welsh Government and Estyn, Welsh Government provide guidelines and frameworks for education providers and Estyn ensure that standards are met strict inspections of schools.

We require knowledge to learn and to process the information we have been given, we need to absorb what we have learnt so that we can process and use it to our benefit.  Huw Lewis Education Minister for Wales stated in his first address on the state of education in Wales "I  bring a deep concern about the attainment gap between those at the bottom of the social-economic ladder...and those that are better off".  This has lead me to believe that people from socially deprived areas and from poorer households do not reach their potential in education compared to people who are economically better off.  Young people in particular face challenges in life to become successful individuals and are required to keep up to date with technology that is required today in society and the workplace.

• Technology in Education

An interesting article in the Guardian on line newspaper stated, "The future of education technology is all about the cloud and anywhere access. In the future, teaching and learning is going to be social," says Matt Britland.  Storing data and information that we use all day and everyday is a problem, everything we use at school seems to be electronic, from registers to websites, handbooks to homework resources are all available on line. We are lucky at our school as we have the Neath Port Talbot Learning Gateway site that allows my school along with all of the other schools in the borough to store and share information, pictures and videos in one accessible place.  Matt Britland says that the future is about access, anywhere learning and collaboration, which I agree with up to a point.  When technology works it is amazing, but without it we seem to appear lost!

I find the media box app very useful for storing pictures and videos that the pupils have made, we can also share these between Neath Port Talbot Schools.









Technology allows learners to access information from around the world easily with the Internet.  Social media allows learners to share and and learn at the touch of a finger. I believe that technology allows us the freedom learn independently without others knowing, but you cannot always trust the site or equipment that you visit or use.  Learning about ICT has shown me that I have lots to learn and that I use ICT everyday in me job and at home, without being able to access our school management system SPaMs for short I would find my job extremely difficult finding out current information about my students or tracking of the efforts and achievements.

There is no doubt that technology is taking us forward globally in education and the world of work.  It seems vitally important that learners are encouraged to use technology at school, at home, in business, for leisure and pleasure.  I find technology amazing, exciting and sometimes frustrating but I firmly believe that it is taking learning to another level!