Thursday 27 November 2008

Education and Training Inspectorate reports on learning environments

The Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) has carried out a comprehensive evaluation on the use of learning environments in schools and the wider education service.

The evaluation included Learning NI (LNI), which is the virtual on-line learning environment of the Classroom 2000 ICT service C2k. LNI was used by 81% of schools surveyed by the ETI and feedback from stakeholders identified dissatisfaction with the service.
Chief Inspector Stanley Goudie said: “Uptake and use of the C2k managed service as a whole has largely been successful, but the evidence is clear that the LNI environment works less well than it should.
“LNI has some functional and performance inadequacies, which is discouraging users. Feedback from the majority of stakeholders interviewed is that LNI is not currently fit for their purposes and does not meet their needs well.
“Following this evaluation, ETI recommends that a higher priority should be given to the provision of a co-ordinated programme of training and support for teachers, including stronger strategic management of those agencies which have responsibility for working together in support of teachers and schools. In the short term, aspects of LNI need to improve; in the longer term, there is a need to develop a new set of online services for schools which take advantage of recent improvements in the technology and support the development and evaluation of new models of online learning."

Saturday 1 November 2008

Cayra for Mind Maps

Cayra is a program that lets you represent tasks, ideas, concepts, and other items in a graphic, well-structured way. Cayra is based on such mental techniques, as Mind Maps and Concept Maps and helps you create colorful and informative maps.

You can use Cayra for: Studies, Brainstorming, Project and people management, Planning and organizing, Creativity, Decision making, Problem solving, and Time management.

Download it for free here.