October 4th - Blogging using Blogger - Blogging is a great way to enthuse children about writing as they genuinely have the potential to have a worldwide audience as well as having their work read by their peers. This knowledge increases their desire to get things right. On this course we will use Blogger as it is very easy to get to know quickly, but sophisticated enough to offer more the just text and pictures and can also be used by teachers in a variety of ways including communication with parents. We will be looking at the e-safety issues that need to be addressed and the safeguards that blogger allows.
October 13th - ICT for literacy. We with look at four areas on this course: i.) Presentation alternatives to PowerPoint, ii.) Digital Story-telling sites which inspire children to write, iii) Online collaboration tools to use within the classroom, iv. ) and Web2 tools to encourage engagement and a different perspective. The programs we will use and look at are freely available on the web either to use online, or free to download. This also makes them appropriate to share with parents and children – with some provisos that we will consider.
October 20th - 1st of a 3-day course (Jan 26th 2011 & March 22nd) Managing ICT and supporting its use across the curriculum for new ICT co-ordinators. There is a lot for new ICT co-ordinators to cover and this course helps a new co-ordinator: to have an overview of the basics; consider their role and where it starts and finishes, consider the ICT in their own schools, as a subject, to support learning across the curriculum and compare this with others; use the SRF tool effectively; be aware of resources available; looks at updating policies, including e-safety, and development plans; consider their own CPD needs and how to address those of the rest of the school, including working with other co-ordinators. Within these there will be space for discussion with participants and opportunities to suggest resources to look in more depth.
November 3rd - Using Scratch (free download) to create animations and games. Scratch is a fascinating free download which introduces basic programming in a very straightforward way, allowing the user to choose customisable blocks to choose the sequence of movements desired. Android apps inventor works in very much the same way and Scratch is a great introduction to this way of working. I would recommend this for using with Years 5 and 6 in the first instance.
November 8th - Drawing and painting - using free online resources and programs. There are many free online or downloadable drawing and painting programs available for use in the classroom. Here we will explore a number and then participants can choose to concentrate on those they feel most appropriate to their needs.
November 22nd - Audacity (free sound editing software) and Podcasting. Recording and then editing audio files gives children of all ages and abilities a chance to hear themselves and make changes in a way that is quite unique, whether it is composing one sentence or putting together a whole radio magazine programme, walk around the local area or guide around a museum. Adult use, i.e. teacher, TA or parent of audacity enables the creation of a whole variety of resources to support all areas of the curriculum, in English or any other language.
Courses are suitable for teachers and TAs unless otherwise stated in the title and cost £200 per person per day.
Please deduct 10% of the total if you have subscribed to the IN2ICT Newsletter http://www.in2ict.co.uk/ (newsletter tab) and then deduct £25 per subsequent person where two or more are attending the same course from your school. The courses will all be held at the Dotcom Centre at Hillcrest School where there is parking on site – follow the drive round in front of the school and park in what used to be tennis courts; and also buses stop just outside (22, 23, and 29A nearby).