Junior Librarian.net

A lot of my time recently has been setting up Junior Librarian.net in school.

Junior Librarian is a complete library system for schools. It allows pupils (and teachers) to borrow and return school books. It allows users to reserve and review books. Our version uses a barcode reader to check books in and out.

It's not cheap, but it is a good bit of kit and, although we are just getting started, I feel that it is going to be very useful.

I foresee it being used in many ways:

1. Library books won't just get 'lost' any more. We should know exactly who has them.
2. We can further raise the profile of reading in our school by using it to recommend books to the children.
3. We can use it to guide our purchasing of books - if a type of book becomes popular we could then decide whether to buy more (or less) similar books.
4. We can discover the books that are most commonly read by boys or by girls.
5. We could use it to raise standards of writing by introducing a book review system.

We purchased Junior Librarian.net as this is hosted online, meaning it can be accessed over the internet anywhere in school and out.

One of the problems I had with setting this up is that I wanted pupils to be able to use the barcode reader to borrow and return books whilst in school. But out of school I want the children to be able to access the system to reserve and review books, and of course this can't be done without a barcode reader. So I asked if it would be possible to generate usernames and passwords for the pupils. I felt like this would be a perfectly reasonably request, and I'm sure I', not the only person who was ever asked for this facility. In the end it took absolutely ages to set this up. I had to download a file from SIMs, manipulate it in Excel and Access and then upload it. For somebody quite unfamiliar with this process this proved to be very difficult. I was virtually making phone calls every day trying to figure out why the file I had created just wasn't working. Luckily the helpdesk staff were really helpful and I finally got this sorted. But Microlib - you've got to invent an easier way to do this!

Year Six pupils loved scanning and labelling all of the books. It was really simple to do and they were really proud of their work.

The next part of the process (after half-term) is to introduce the usernames and passwords so that pupils can make full use of the site. I also want to train the staff to use the facilities of the site so that they can find out the most commonly read books in their class.

Long term, there is an option to upgrade to allow Learning Platform integration. This sounds really interesting - we'll see how we get on with the basic version first though.

Does anyone else have experience of Junior Librarian.net?

Sharing links with Sqworl

I heard about Linkbunch after reading about BETT on various blogs. Linkbunch allows you to share multiple websites by simple sharing links on just one page. I thought it was a brilliant idea. It would be great for sharing links with children for a research project or for parents when sharing some of the sites we use when studying a particular topic.





I later discovered Sqworl which I think has the potential to be even better.
Sqworl is incredibly easy to use. To create an account you'll need an email address and then create a username and password.

Then you can add links and give a description to each one. A unique page is created which includes the links and a screenshot.

The end result is very friendly-looking. I've created a page to share SATs revision websites at
http://sqworl.com/38hj5n.

The children could design their own pages to share websites that they like, or websites that they have used during topic work.

Printer chaos

During the last couple of weeks in school I've broken the news to staff that nearly £2000 has been spent on printer inks.

What an obscene amount of money!

The first step I have taken in order to try and reduce this amount is to write a policy stating where things can and cannot be printed. In a nutshell, the policy states that our printers in the computer suites are far more expensive to run and so these should purely be used by the children to print out work. All professional work must be printed using our classroom printers.

But after speaking about it on Twitter I have realised that the problem goes deeper. I mean, what exactly are people printing anyway? What was so important to be printed that the best part of £2000 needed to be spent?

The general message from people on Twitter was that we should be trying to print as little as possible. Indeed one Twitter user is trying to make his primary school paperless. Now, I realise that we are a million miles away from achieving that goal, but we must take drastic steps to reduce the amount of printing that we are currently producing.

Useful websites

Now it's the summer holidays I thought I'd share some websites that I have discovered during the last academic year which I plan to embed firmly in the Year Six curriculum next year.

Twitter: I know that this is hardly 'a discovery' as it's been hard to escape from it this year. But Twitter is a brilliant social networking website which school has used to share news about events. This year we have used the site simply as a reporting tool, but next year we plan to use it to engage with our parents more effectively. Our Friends of the school could use it to communicate, too.

Wallwisher: This website will be useful for creating class surveys, but also for sharing thoughts. Next year I want to use it for character studies in English to give the children a way of sharing their ideas. In Maths I can use it for problem solving so that the children can share solutions. It's also great for simply celebrating news events - allowing pupils to offer their own best wishes.

Vimeo: Owing to the number of digital cameras the school has purchased (many through voucher collection schemes) videos of the children's work are becoming more frequent. We have created a channel on Vimeo (which I just feel is safer than YouTube for our children) to share videos.


Wordle: Since introducing Wordle to staff it has mainly been used for display purposes. I intend to use it as a tool for analysing the main messages in a piece of work. It could also be used for examining language choices and investigating the features of a style of writing.

Flickr: We use Flickr for sharing photos from school. Our school newspaper reporters use it to find suitable pictures for their articles. We also use it for work on Photo Story and PowerPoint as it's so easy to find pictures to illustrate our work.

Voicethread: A recent discovery is Voicethread where pupils can have a conversation about a picture together. It is really clever and very easy to use. I think we could use this to explore settings and characters in English and also to use it as a basis for problem solving in maths.

Webspiration: Great for mindmapping and for planning!

Etherpad: This is an awesome collaborative writing website. Up to 8 people can work on the same piece of writing at the same time. We used this to work on radio advert writing and also for writing play scripts. I just think of all the times that I've asked pupils to work as a pair on one piece of writing and then seen only one person doing the work. Never again!

Memiary: This very simple website allows you to share five things that you have done today. Next year I plan to use this as a daily review of what we have learned.

Do you have any new websites that you plan to use with the children next year?

Using Etherpad

I heard about Etherpad via Twitter, and also Mark Warner's blog, http://www.mrwarner.com/. Etherpad is a website where people can work collaboratively on the same document. Brilliant!!

It really is simple to use. Just go to Etherpad and create a new pad. You can then email the link for the pad to other people. Up to 8 can work on the same pad all at once. You can see people editing the document before your very eyes!

The potential for use in school is unlimited. There are many opportunities for using it with staff - all those times where we've put a document together with just one scribe? Well now everyone can get involved! It could also be used for communication!

The classroom possibilities are where the strengths of Etherpad really lie. I have used it with the class this week. Bearing in mind it was the first time using it, it did come with one or two problems, but I'm pleased to just get the ball rolling!

We have been working on balanced report writing for the last few weeks. The trainee teacher that had been teaching the class finished her successful placement on the Friday and so I wanted an exciting project to end the focus on reports. I decided that we could write a balanced report on bedtimes. I presented the children with a biased report explaining why children should go to bed early. The children used Etherpad to plan ideas for the other side of the argument. I used our blog to set up links for each table to find their Etherpad. It went really well and I was pleased with the work produced.

Later in the week we used Etherpad again, this time to prepare a script for a radio talk show. The children had to prepare a radio show where callers would phone to offer their arguments, for or against the issue. The children elected host DJs for each team. They had to write an introduction to the show whilst the others would enter information from the callers. It was really good fun. The DJs did find it a little difficult to keep up with the arguments being presented from all of the callers. With hindsight, perhaps we needed more DJs!

I found that the connections to the Etherpads were a little unreliable, but I think this had more to do with our painfully slow internet connection this week rather than with Etherpad itself. The children became frustrated with the connection continually breaking, so the quality of work was not as good as I'm sure it could have been.

I'm looking forward to finding further opportunities to use Etherpad in the classroom. Have you used Etherpad? How have you used it?

Residential in France

Yesterday I returned from a week in France with our Year Sixes.

This is the third year that we have enjoyed a visit to France, and I'm delighted to say that it has once again been a very successful week!

We set off from school at 6.30am on Monday and arrived at our chateau 11 hours later! Our accomodation is fantastic and the grounds in which we stayed were beautiful.

On Tuesday we toured the local town of Rue. In the afternoon we visited a nearby goat farm where the children had chance to hold some of the goats, rabbits and chicks. We also visited a delicious chocolate factory.

On Wednesday we travelled to Amiens, the nearest city, with one of the most incredible buildings I've ever seen. The cathedral takes my breath away every time I see it! We then set off for an underground city which was used by local villagers to hide during WW2.

On Thursday we travelled to Abbeville to explore the local shops and sample a French cafe. In the afternoon we learned to play petanque and braved the muddiest blind trail!

On Friday we visited Nausicaa, a fantastic aqarium before setting off home again.

It is wonderful to see how much the children gained in confidence and independence during the week. Their French skills developed well.

This year, for the first time, we created a blog which we used to communicate to parents. This was experimental, as we weren't really sure what internet facilities we could use. We used Posterous, and linked to it from our school website. We then simply used Googlemail to send an email with news about the events of the day. The feedback from parents was really positive and lots of them added comments.

Next year we plan to add photos whilst we are away by taking a laptop with us. We will use a wireless connection to upload lots of exciting news. We will also experiment with Twitter so that we can add updates via mobile phone so that little snippets can be added. Before then I want to learn to feed Twitter directly into Posterous.

Computer skills should be given more importance

A report at Becta says that today's increasingly computer-literate youngsters are improving their ICT skills so fast there is a strong argument they should be taught secondary school knowledge earlier at primary school.

This insight into the fast-developing skills of England's techno-savvy minors by education expert Sir Jim Rose is one of the key findings of the interim report of his independent primary curriculum review published on Monday, 8 December 2008.

He says in his report that primary and secondary ICT needs to be reviewed "to provide a better fit with children's developing abilities" so that English education does not get left behind by the technology revolution. He wants ICT to be given as much priority in the primary school curriculum as literacy and numeracy.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls, responding to the interim report, said 21st century schools needed to adapt to the times and make the most of technology to improve our children's learning.

Examples of the kind of things our hi-tech high-flyers might do at primary rather than wait for secondary:

• Using podcasts in their studies or making their own radio programmes
• Using ICT to produce well-presented essays and presentations on screen that they can share with the class or whole school
• Uploading their artwork on computers
• Testing rules and values by using formulas and spreadsheets for science and maths
• Discussing the use and impact of technology on society
• Analysing different sources online, e.g. for history subjects
• Helping their research skills for different topics, eg world geography, maps and weather forecasts
• Using the internet to share projects with other schools.

Sir Jim Rose said:
"Good primary teaching deepens children's understanding by firing their imagination and interest in learning. One highly promising route to meeting the demand for in-depth teaching and learning is undoubtedly emerging through ICT. The primary curriculum needs to be forward-looking. Advances in technology and the internet revolution are driving a pace of change which we could not have imagined when the National Curriculum was introduced twenty years ago."

Ed Balls said:
"We can sometimes under-estimate children's knowledge of ICT and that can be a missed opportunity to raise standards at primary schools. As Sir Jim's interim report points out, by age 11 children could already be using their computer skills to boost their studies across the curriculum. In maths, primary children are advanced enough to use technology to improve their learning rather than just play computer games, for example. Parents of our generation probably don't realise how fast children are picking up computer skills today. In our day computers were probably a novelty for older children in secondary school children whereas today they're commonplace. Teaching and the curriculum need to move with the times. We need 21st century schools which make the most of the opportunities technology offers to improve our children's learning."

Stephen Crowne, Chief Executive of Becta, said:
"There’s no question that technology plays an increasing part of our everyday life at home and school. Clear evidence shows effective use of technology really does boost a child's achievement."

Sir Jim Rose says in his report that ICT has the unique capacity to develop and enliven learning and in some schools ICT is not "working hard enough" to support learning and provide value for money. He believes that much of the ICT currently taught at Key Stage 3 in secondary school should be taught in primary school instead because it is "well within the capabilities" of primary children. Instead, by the time children reach Key Stage 3 they should not only be able to show ICT skills but also be already able to apply these skills across the curriculum to advance their learning.

The interim review report also says that ICT should be used more by primary teachers to give the required "depth" to lessons, so teachers can meet the pace and appetite for learning of the most able children and they are not held back.

Jim Rose makes a lot of sense here and it's about time someone said it. The ICT curriculum urgently needs updating and I hope it happens soon. Computer skills are essential in today's world.

Great ideas for bringing technology to the classroom

I really enjoyed reading this report in the TES. I'd love to hear if anyone else is using this technology, and also where they learned how to do it!

Online Photo Services

I have spent some time this summer trying to find an online photo service that I am entirely happy with. Let me share some of the pros and cons of what I found:
Snapfish
I have used this site for about a year for getting photos printed. I have been really impressed by the quality of printed photos and the seemingly unlimited storage space for photos. However, the sharing options are far from adequate, and I can't seem to find a way to tag photos. It was for this reason that I tried to find an alternative.

Oosah
Oosah was the next site I tried, tempted by the promise of 1TB of online storage space. It all seemed promising at first, but then I realised that I couldn't upload documents as well, meaning that I was never likely to come close to using all of the 1TB. Unfortunately I can't print photos from the site, and, as clear as day there were pornographic photos in the public photostream! Not ideal.

Picasa
This was next on my list. This could be useful as it links with Blogger. However, I can't print photos from the site.

Facebook
This is really useful if you want to share photos with friends, and the ability to tag people in photos is brilliant. But what if I don't want to share the photos, or simply back them up? Facebook wouldn't allow this.

Flickr
Flickr appears to be one of the best photo sites around. The tagging is excellent, and the photostream and ability to link directly to individual photos are all valuable features. I can edit photos online, and make photos public, for sharing, and private, just for backing up pictures. However, there is one flaw - at the moment you cannot print photos in the UK directly from Flickr.

Photobox
This morning I am trying out Photobox. Despite rather slow uploading speeds, so far it looks the most promising of them all - photo sharing, making photos private, tagging and printing all seem possible. Could I have found The One?

Anyone got any thoughts?

Ofsted's ICT findings

The TES reports on an Ofsted study. ICT is used to good effect to increase children's confidence and improve their attitudes to learning. Particular gains were noted for pupils for whom English is an additional language, and pupils with learning difficulties.

Teachers have made 'great strides' in the foundation stage and KS1 by using ICT to develop children's independence and creativity. But the momentum was sometimes lost in KS2, inspectors said.

Pupils' achievement was good in about a third of primary schools, but unsatisfactory in one in 10. Primaries are well equipped, but teacher training has not kept pace, meaning that computers and other equipment are not used to their full potential. And more account should be taken of pupils' experience of ICT outside school.

Using blogs in the classroom

Here are a few original ways to show how blogs are used in the classroom.

St Vincent's Y5 & 6 blog - This blog has regular updates for the children in years 5 and 6 at this school. It's updated weekly and it features updates about what the pupils have done in school that week. It also features links to games and other websites connected with their studies.

Oak1 at Shirley Warren Primary School - This is a writing blog. The teacher uploads the children's writing and photos to the blog to display their work. Pupils and parents can then read their work from their English lessons.

Mr Jennings' Class - This blog is updated every couple of days and acts as a sort of diary of what the children have studied in the last couple of days. Great for communicating with parents!

Does anyone else use blogs in the classroom? Does anyone use them in any other effective ways?

Webbli World

WebbliWorld is an exciting, stimulating, virtual world that kids can explore, inhabit, belong to and share. It is a world that promotes caring, responsible behaviour and gives kids the opportunity to voice their opinions on topics that matter.

The site says that, "WebbliWorld mirrors the real world and guides children through the mind-boggling maze of the internet. Our friendly characters introduce important topics such as the environment, climate change and recycling in an accessible and memorable way. Here, kids will learn without even knowing it! We are working in partnership with WWF to make sure that all our environmental messages are accurate and educational."

E-safety should become part of ICT lessons

I wholeheartedly agree with a report in the TES today. A government-commissioned review found that parents' lack of awareness about the interent was leaving pupils vulnerable.

Dr Tanya Byron, a TV child behaviour expert, was asked by Gordon Brown to look at the risks internet and video games posed to children. She found that parents did not have the confidence to deal with them. Many parents seemed to believe that leaving their children surfing the internet was similar to them watching television. She said in fact it was more like opening the front door and letting a child go outside to play unsupervised.

Her report asks ministers to look at how e-safety could be applied to the PSHE or ICT curriculum.

A phrase I've often heard used by adults is, "You can find anything on the Internet." It's so true - you can. But unfortunately, a lot of what you find is not what you were looking for. Regarding children's safety, this is a very worrying situation - they could be exposed to something completely inappropriate. The fact that now, in 2008, it's just occurred to the government that this is a problem, once again highlights their failings in moving along the quality of the ICT curriculum. Sort this out quickly!

Brain Training

After trying Brain Training on the Nintendo DS on the way to France on our recent residential, I am not at all surprised by this report in the Times. I am only surprised that it hasn't happened sooner.

Primary pupils are being encouraged to play on Nintendo DS consoles in class to boost their cognitive skills. Under a scheme being tested on 900 pupils in 16 primary schools in Scotland, children are being given the hand-held computer games devices for free and encouraged to start their day by doing “brain training” exercises. Trials of the game, Nintendo’s More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima, found that an early morning 20-minute daily session, involving reading, problem solving and memory puzzles, could boost maths attainment as well as improving concentration and behaviour levels.

Derek Robertson, of Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), the body responsible for the development of the curriculum, said that children in the trial were given a maths test at the beginning and the end of the ten-week experiment. Their scores showed a 10 per cent average improvement. “Game-based learning can provide dynamic and culturally relevant contexts that engage, motivate and challenge today’s young learner,” he said.

Nintendo DS consoles are already used in Japan as an aid to teaching children the “alphabet” of more than 2,000 Kanji characters. Primary school children are each given a device and provided with software that tests their ability to remember the characters and write them correctly on the lower screen. Schools that have started using the consoles – devoting about 20 minutes at the beginning of each “koku-go” (Japanese) lesson to the tests – report substantially higher test scores when the children take mainstream exams. A few mathematics teachers in Japan’s high-intensity cram schools have adopted the Nintendo DS as a way of testing mental arithmetic speed.

The Japanese games software industry has responded quickly to the growing demand, churning out dozens of titles that could practically be used by teachers, though the Ministry of Education has been slow to endorse national adoption of the idea.

In Scotland, LTS said it was providing 480 Nintendo DS consoles for the project, with 30 going to each school. They will remain in the schools during the trial. Once the scheme is over, LTS will use the consoles for other educational projects over the next few years.

My MGL.com

My MGL is a resource for ICT Co-ordinators and teachers to find up-to-date information about the latest thinking surrounding ICT in teaching and learning, management and organisation and creativity. There are ideas about embedding ICT in the curriculum and some useful documents for co-ordinators.

Zamzar

Zamzar is site which you can use to convert files or download videos from YouTube without having to buy software.

Scrapblog

Scrapblog.com likes it could be a good way for communicating with parents, or even as a project for the children in Year Six. It is a way to combine photos, videos, audio and text to create a multimedia scrapbook.

Ictopus

Ictopus (ICT online primary user support) is a free support service for ICT in primary education which was launched on 1st September 2007.

Each week registered members of the service have access to a six page printable magazine (Sharing Good Practice) and a set of activity suggestions (lessons2go).

There are also frequent news postings and a variety of other resources and projects.

Converting video

Just thought I'd give a quick tutorial in how to convert files from digital cameras into WMV format so that they can be used in Windows Movie Maker. My digital camera is a Samsung.
You will need a video converter. There are free versions on the internet, but I used one by Xilisoft. There is a free version, but if you want to convert files that are longer than 5 minutes, you'll need to buy the full version ($35 or about £25 including VAT). Open the program and select the files you wish to convert. Change the file destination and also the type of file you wish to create and then click on Encode.

The file will then be altered into a WMV file. This still can't be used, however, as it needs to be indexed. You'll then need some free software called Windows Media File Editor which is part of the Windows Media Encoder Package. If you open up the video in this program and then save it, the program will automatically index it.

You are then able to use the video in Windows Movie Maker.

Our Year Sixes are going to make a DVD of the school to form part of our new school prospectus.

Data unprotected?

The BBC reports that sensitive information on school pupils is being put at risk by staff who take it home with them. Teachers in nearly half of England's primary schools back up pupil data on CDs and memory sticks, which they then take out of school, research suggests. A survey of 933 schools for school computing firm RM found only 1% of respondents were encrypting the data.

RM blamed a lack of clear guidance, but the government said it published advice for schools on the issue. The warning comes after a string of data security breaches by government departments and associated agencies.

The kind of information being carried by teachers commuting to and from school is similar, says RM. It includes the names, addresses and birth dates of pupils, contact numbers for parents, sensitive details of pupils' attendance and behaviour, as well as academic records. The discs, memory sticks and tapes on which it is recorded could be lost or stolen from teachers' bags, the firm warns.

In addition to the 49% of schools which said they allowed the data to be taken home by staff, a further 4% said they left sensitive and unprotected data at unsecured locations in the school. Head of RM schools management solutions Paul Grubb said: "Schools may be acting with the best intentions to preserve children's records and ensure information is kept up to date, but they risk breaching data protection guidelines by taking such risks with pupil data. "Unfortunately, the Data Protection Act isn't clear enough on this issue and so schools are interpreting it and making their own decisions. Following our findings we plan to take the matter up with the Information Commissioner to try and establish clearer guidance for schools."

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said schools had to make sure that personal information is protected and looked after fairly in line with the Data Protection Act - as with any other organisation that handles personal information. "The Information Commissioner's Office produces detailed guidance about all aspects of the Act. We also publish specific advice about the data protection issues that schools need to be aware of when collecting and processing personal data about pupils and other individuals," he added.

A spokeswoman for the Information Commissioner's Office said the Act was very clear that organisations which process personal information must ensure its security at all times. "Large amounts of personal information, particularly sensitive information, should only be taken off-site if it is absolutely necessary."