Then when PCs were installed in our classrooms we learned how to create ppts and the like to use in addition to the traditional material.   Once we had ready access to the internet, we made use of the rich sources of information and inspiration and probably learned to bookmark our favourite sites for retrieval at a later date.   This change in approach wasn’t without its difficulties (pen drive malfunctions and bookmarks tied to a specific computer being just two.)  But we persevered.

And now there’s  ”Cloud Computing” and “Digital Media”  - something else to get our heads around.  

The tools  available on the internet are changing the way teachers share good practice;  they are enabling collaboration like you’ve never seen it done in school before and they are offering  us a host of opportunities to develop  our students’  independence  as learners.

There is a veritable treasure trove of tools to help us as teachers and to enable us to offer our students exciting and engaging ways of learning.

I could e-mail you this information, but the chances are it will get lost in the deluge of mail you receive daily and anyway, you might delete it!

I could print you off a list of the links but you’ll inevitably put it down somewhere never to track it down again.

So the links I want to share with you, come to you in the form of a Symbaloo Webmix and will, I hope, inspire you to share your own links with colleagues and students, thanks to the simplicity of the system.

Each tile on here takes you to a particular page on the internet. Think of it like an advent calendar. Each tile reveals a professional delight of some sort. It might be a place where you can collaborate on a document with your department, a site where you can create a revision quiz in under ten minutes and have your pupils test themselves using one of fifty ready made games (which, by the way are marked for you and logged in a markbook!) or it might be where you go to enable pupils to give you and the class simultaneous feedback on what they have learned in the lesson – via a text message that goes straight to a Powerpoint document.

Training will take place from 8.30 – 9.00am one day soon.  See you in ICT4.

Coming soon to your very own desktop is a tailor made collection of links you are likely to want access to on a daily – or fairly regular- basis.  I’ve been experimenting with the feature over the past couple of weeks and feel it is now ready to go live.

Those of you who are hesitant about using new online materials, will, I hope, find it easy to use, whilst those of you who like embracing new technology, may well find yourselves creating your own personal account and downloading the add on that works with Chrome and Firefox - which enables you to create a tile directly from the webpage you want to save.

Check them out below.
tools-4-teachers

top tips for teachers

personal learning environment for teachers

spelling games

literacy

Thanks to the wealth of resources now available on the WWW, it no longer takes an inordinate amount of time to stay in touch with the latest thinking, once you have invested an hour or two setting up your PLE.  Once set up, your network will ensure that 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there will be sufficient to keep you up to date with issues and materials that matter to you.

My PLE

Setting up a PLE is relatively straightforward.  Firstly, decide what aspects of your professional life you want to develop, as this will determine what  tools you will use to create your environment.  Maybe you want new ideas for motivating your pupils; new resources to use on your IWB; a better understanding of the latest educational theories in readiness for an upcoming interview; advice from  colleagues in other schools who’ve been there and done what you are contemplating introducing.

Twitter is an excellent way for teachers to exchange ideas, help one another and share links to the materials they find on the web.  Others have kindly explained why so here’s a link for you to check out.

Once you have set up your account, you need to find appropriate colleagues to follow.  Check out  this link for some inspiration;  or this one .

Once you have realised the potential of networking for collaboration, innovation and support you might want to create a one page access to your key sites.  I recommend SYMBALOO and this YOU TUBE VIDEO is a must watch for you and your students.

MY TWITTER PLN

Get your twitter mosaic here.

What is i-google?

Basically, it is a very useful page you can create to meet your needs as a user of the internet, and which you can set as the first page you see when you go on to the internet.   From this one page, you can search  using Google; access your Hotmail, Facebook, Twitter and Delicious accounts; check out the cinema listings and the weather forecast  in your area; check train times; plan a journey using Google Maps, and much much more.

Check out the tutorial below if you are interested but lack the confidence to try it out.

Teacher at work

If you often use the bookmark or favourites facility on your computer to save teaching related links to frequently used sites, or to create lists of sites you hope to re-visit one day, then probably the next logical step for you as a teacher is to spend 5 minutes getting to grips with a social bookmarking site.

VIEW SHORT TUTORIAL HERE

I’m now using and appreciating DELICIOUS (chosen simply because I had seen many references to it as I navigated the web) Check out what my page looks like here: http://delicious.com/mccandjt

The benefits are many;  you can access your bookmarks from any computer with internet access; you can bookmark any link quickly and easily; you can sort your bookmarks in a jiffy according to quick and easy tags you add; you can SHARE these bookmarks with your colleagues, – a good practice if ever there was one: and if you are really adventurous, you can share them with other like-minded teachers and harvest their links.

GO ON,  take a break from report writing and set up your account.  You won’t regret it.