Jist Haiverin

PQDVD have developed software which appears to be like Crazy Talk but much cheaper. Seems to be worth a look.

A couple of days ago primary 1 pupils spoke to Santa in a video conference from the North Pole.

Here are some pictures of the event -

Many of our schools have already discovered the benefits of using Education City ( www.educationcity.com). Central funds have paid for a year’s subscription for all Aberdeen primary pupils. Activities are mapped to the 5-14 curriculum in Maths, Language, Science and French. A great starter activity if an interactive whiteboard has been installed in your classroom and you are wondering how to use it effectively in your teaching.  More info can be found in our recent newsletter. www.aberdeen-education.org.uk.  A twilight session has been organised for early in the next term. Details of  this will be sent to schools.

Download the latest Education ICT newsletter here with a competition for Aberdeen school staff to win an Asus laptop!

Here’s a WORD version for anyone having trouble with the pdf - Quiz - WORD version

Everyone who visited the last TeachMeet in Glasgow came back full of ideas and enthusiasm for putting new technologies into practice in the classroom. (The provision of copious amounts of food and drink had nothing to do with their enthusiasm, I’m sure!)

Visit Neil Winton’s blog for more information.

If you’re looking for Christmas pictures to use for making Christmas cards or Calendars or just to decorate a handout, here are some sites worth visiting -

http://www.christmas-graphics-plus.com/

http://www.freegraphics.com/03_Holiday/Christmas/

http://www.christmas-graphics.com/

http://www.christmasfreebies.com/christmasgraphics.html

http://www.internetfamilyfun.com/christmasclipart.htm

Some seasonal IWB activities for Early Years.

http://christmas.iboard.co.uk/

I’ve been playing working with Moodle for some time now and I’m getting reasonably good at it. Its the sort of thing you can spend hours at - or just a few minutes - whatever takes your fancy. I sometimes moodle in the bedroom, sometimes at work, mostly I moodle in the evenings while watching The Bill.
I’m usually not alone. If I care to look I can often find someone else moodling away at the same time as me.

Just last week I was moodling away, minding my own business, when I stumbled upon a fellow moodler in NewZealand. Bizarrely, we share exactly the same name and both work in Education ICT. More on this later.

Of course, I’m talking about Moodle - the course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities.
I’m not alone because worldwide there are literally millions of teachers and learners with moodle accounts. Here in Aberdeen City our own moodle site (Abernet Courses) has around 300 users representing teachers and pupils from all over the city. Eight of our academies have active moodle sites and the number is growing as is the level of activity on the sites.
Aberdeen’s teachers are getting to grips with e-learning.
If you want to know more about how moodle can help you and your learners communicate just drop me an email.
Richard. relliott@aberdeencity.gov.uk

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Moodle clip
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The rest of this video can be found by clicking these links.
Introduction English Physics Food Tech Reading Conclusion

Views from live web cameras are available from all over the world. An extensive collection of cameras can be found at EarthCam. Some are live video feeds and others are still pictures which update at regular intervals. You can use these cameras are part of lessons on other countries, watch animals in zoos and in the wild, etc.

It is easy to embed the view in a PowerPoint presentation or just link directly to the camera itself. Some advice on this can be found at RadicalGeographyWebcams.

Some more ideas can be found on the Geographical Association site.

Here are a few examples -

Times Square

Loch Ness

Santa’s Office

I saw this used at TeachMeet07. It is a fun way of randomly choosing students to answer questions or contribute ideas. You could also use it as a way of revising a topic by entering a list of subjects, dates or concepts for students to talk about. You can copy and paste your data direct from Word, Excel and other programs.

http://www.classtools.net/help_pages/fruit_machine.htm