gr8ict.com

Photo links here…

I work as a head of ICT in a large comprehensive school using Fronter as our VLE.  Therefore you will see a bias towards the following topics:

Home Access from Becta
eSafety
Fronter
ICT Strategy and CPD
Miscellaneous findings

Home Access from Becta (see slides 12-30)

- www.homeaccess.org.uk/
- The government’s made a grant of up to £528 available for low income families with children living in England; it’s targeted at those without access to the internet.
- Years 7-9 for secondary school
- the pilot was a huge success - 90% take-up
- Learn from pilot schools what level of engagement you require
- Eligible parents get a visa card with £528 to spend on a suitable system at approved suppliers such as Comet

eSafety (see slides (38-48)

Having run eSafety days for year 7 and Year 8 in the last month, needing to do something for older students, I was interested in what Childnet and CEOP to say.
- Safer Internet Day 2010 on the 9th February
- new materials ready in the next week
- new Know-it-All materials will be streamable off the website (Hurray!)

Fronter (see slides 1-11)
- new parent portal - I liked the simplicity and the colour coding
- New look Fronter coming in the style of the new goal tool that they have available
- Investigate the following
- open/edit/save function
- Page tool
- Change language on page
I am not the only one to consider it very clunky at moment…

ICT Strategy and CPD
- I liked the new Vital website for ICT CPD

Miscellaneous findings
- Use Ofcom data in future eLearning assembly
- live@edu - free e-mail solution / online storage for schools from Microsoft
- semblio - free multimedia authoring package from Microsoft
- Office 2010 - look for plugin to offer alternative to ribbon…
- New Casio Projectors - 20,000 hours due to new laser/led technology
- www.ict-register.net/
- www.ictcpd4free.co.uk/

Hope this helps,

Chris

Just received this digital photo frame.  Did lots of research - glad I got this one:

Pros
- superb quality - chosen for simplicity of black frame around display - shows photos off perfectly
- P&P from this company were exemplary - I ordered on a Monday and asked for Friday delivery - no problem.
- File transfer via mini usb is very fast - 1 minute for 100 pics at 800×533 pixels
- I estimate I can fit 500 photos on the internal memory
- I changed the options for Slideshow speed to medium and the optimum Display Image size mentioned below and that’s it…

Cons
- just the lack of a random feature (but this was clearly illustrated on the website)

no others really but bear in mind these…
- portrait (upright) photos never look great in landscape digital photo frames (DPFs)
- DSLR pics will convert to an aspect ratio of 800×533, leaving a black space at top and bottom.  No problem - use the DPF menu to choose photo > menu > Display Image size > optimum.  Purists will argue that this will chop off a little on each size… make your choice - life’s too short, and this frame does exactly what it says on the tin, meaning that I can quickly add my photos and admire them all day long…

Everyone has to join websites these days, using an email and a password to access the site.  But how to remember which email and which password you have used?  The easiest solution is to use a password manager.  I used to use the free whisper32 but when I started using a ppc mobile phone and synching it to my desktop then I paid for codewallet.   With a bit of recent investigation I have now found there is a Opensource PC app called KeePass for keeping a secure list of your passwords on a range of computers - Windows, Mac and Linux.  More, including help links, here.

Very happy with a recent foray onto the Web… In California we saw the latest Rockband 2 release - with a drumkit provided- Band in a Box. However the reviews are not great, and anyway, Ben already has an electronic drum kit and a Wii.  You would think it would be possible to join the two…

Well, after looking at options for buying a full game and then pulling it apart, including the need for a soldering iron, it turns out that someone in California has done the hard bit… a full midi to usb convertor for full plug’n'play

http://www.rockband.com/users/sethmeisterg/gallery

Have just ordered one - thanks Seth…  I love the web…

Please click here for photos.

Introduction
I have been waiting for a long time to do this post.  A year ago I committed to creating a training session for our PGCE students, and having put that together today, now is an ideal time to publish my thoughts on the Web.

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle, Greek philosopher, (384-322BC)

In other words, there is hope for us all.  I know that using the knowledge and skills which I outline later, I am far more effective and enjoy my work far more than I did a couple of years ago.  Some of this feel-good-factor is making the most of ICT tools to help me be more effective - I will do a second post about these in the future.

Above all, time management is a misnomer.  you can’t manage time of course.  All you can do is make choices about what you do and when.

Of the many time management books I have bought, and of the smaller number I have read, I will recommend three:

Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play - Mark Forster - The best book on the nuts and bolts as it is realistic and deals with being effective in an achievable way.

Getting Things Done (GTD) - David Allen - used to think it was better than I do now, as I find it creates longer lists than I can cope with…

7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey - The best book overall.
Just the best book for dealing with what is important.

Introduction
There is just too much stuff around.  To concentrate on the important things in life you need to ‘declutter’ and be disciplined to prevent any more unnecessary infiltration of unwanted clutter.  As Peter Drucker said “Efficiency is doing things right, Effectiveness is doing the right things” and I would add “at the right time”.

GTD gives a start, although to my mind deals too much with efficiency.  However, I like the three main strands, which are:

1. CAPTURE all the things that need to get done
2. CLARIFY Next Steps
3. REVIEW Regularly

This basic flow chart of the GTD work flow gives the ideas, and will allow you to efficiently deal with your in tray.  If you like more detail, try this advanced flow chart. (both from http://www.davidco.com/ )

However, I rate Mark Forster much more highly for Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play for a short book, some blinding commonsense, and really good ideas.  For example, here are some of them:

1. You can do anything, but not everything.
2. The value you give to something depends on your values in life.
3. Learned to look at your list of tasks and sort them with Must do, Should do, Could do.
4. Learn to say ‘No’

Finally, I must give credit to a book I have gone back to time and time again since first reading it in 1999 and that is Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  I have found all seven ‘habits’ very powerful ideas.  I particularly recommend his descriptions of:

1. Keeping the balance of P and PC (Overview)
2. Circle of concern / circle of influence (Habit 1 - Be Proactive)
3. The importance of quadrant 2 activities (Habit 3 - Put First things First)

In fact, I quoted from it as recently as the weekend, to use the idea of the balance of P and PC (product, and product capability).  If you were to work in a school where more and more gets squeezed out of you, it may work in the short-term, with increased exam results, but in the intermediate to long-term your capacity for good teaching becomes less, and the quality of product - your relationship with your students and colleagues, and your ability to inspire - reduces… obvious really… 

Chris

Well, by end of school Friday we had already raised over £2000.  Big thank you to everyone who “did something funny for money”, but also all those who gave money and helped organise and clear up afterwards.

Photos are here…