Flip camera - converting movies to work with movie maker.

Flip cameras have been growing in popularity somewhat over the last year or so.  Their versatility, ease of use and HD quality certainly tick a lot of boxes for those involved in education.  There does seem to be one major issue though that schools struggle with, and that's taking the movie from the Flip Camera into Windows Movie Maker.  Fear not for a solution is nigh!  Simply open the Flipshare software that is built into the camera.  You will need to install this first if you haven't already done so. Select the movie or movies you would like to convert, then click on 'Share' and select the 'Publish to Web' icon as circled in the screenshot opposite.  You will then be asked to share your videos to 'myspace' youtube' or 'other web sites'.  Choose the last one 'other web sites'.  This will save the video as a WMV into a specified folder. You will now be able to use this Windows Movie Video to import into movie maker.

CEOP's "Back to School" Campaign

As part of the "Back to School" campaign, to encourage parents and carers to become more involved in protecting their children online, CEOP has designed a letter that can be sent out to parents to promote positive steps to help safeguard their child.

You can distribute the letter through your school website and email or print off paper copies. It's a great way of engaging parents at the start of the school year and introducing internet safety as a key aspect of their child's life.

You can download the letter by clicking on the link below.

Back to school letter

Remember you can access all sorts of information and useful resources on internet safety from Think u know - created by CEOP

Follow-up Evaluation of The Use and Impact of Learning Environments in Schools and in the Wider Education Service

In 2008, the Education and Training Inspectorate carried out a comprehensive evaluation of the use and impact of learning environments across the schools and wider education service. The evaluation included Learning Northern Ireland, which is the regional virtual online learning environment of the Classroom 2000 (C2k) managed service solution. The purpose of this follow-up evaluation is to determine the extent to which the key recommendations outlined in the original evaluation have been addressed by the various stakeholders.

Online Learning Graduation for Northern Ireland

Pictured above back row: Aidan McCanny (SELB), Daithi Murray, (St. Paul's Bessbrook), Ciaran McCrumlish (SELB). Front row: Elaine Dunne (St. Paul's Bessbrook), Anne McKinless (SELB), Vivien Kelly (SELB).

On the 3rd June 2010, the Regional Training Unit (RTU) for N Ireland, celebrated another graduation event in Malone House Belfast. Over 60 practising post-primary teachers and officers from the education support services (ELBs, ETI, CCEA) successfully completed RTU’s Online Learning and Teaching for Educators Programme (OLTE). The keynote speaker at this year’s ceremony was Mr John Anderson, Managing Inspector ETI. Presentations were also given by Mr Sean Sloan, Headteacher, St Patrick’s Grammar School, Downpatrick and Michelle Clancy, OLTE Graduate. The certificates were presented by Mr Stanton Sloan, Chief Executive of the South Eastern Education & Library Board.

Backing up your website/vle

This post is for those people whose web hosting company uses the 'cpanel' to manage their sites.  Most of the popular ISPs use cpanel including Bluehost, Hostgator and Justhost.

When you log into your web host, you are automatically taken to their cpanel.  In the Files section of the cpanel, there is an option (icon) called Backup Wizard.  When you click on the icon, you are presented with two options, namely Backup or Restore.

Using Yacapaca for Controlled Assessment

Yacapaca can be used to help in the Controlled Assessment aspect of subjects. A subject teacher simply creates a portfolio within Yacapaca which provides the students with an area to upload their files (max 15M per file).

When the lesson is nearly over, the students will upload their work to the portfolio. The teacher then opens up the specific portfolio and selects all the students:

The teacher locks their portfolio by selecting the 'Actions with selected items', then 'lock/unlock' as shown above.

Digital Research Tools (DiRT)

Although this site is primarily focused on tools related to research, it contains a vast collection of links to tools which are extremely useful for the classroom.

Here is a list of the categories included.  Each category contains many useful links.

• Authoring
• Blogging
• Brainstorming
• ...

For example, to manipulate an image, Splashup is a suberb alternative for the likes of Photoshop; or for a 'A Beginner's Guide to Mind Mapping Meetings', click here.

CutePDF Writer

This little program allows a user to create a PDF document from virtually any windows application. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a 'Printer Subsystem' and therefore if you can print from an application you can create a PDF. This software is completely free, no popups, web adds, or watermarks. You can use this software to save a copy of a summary from a Google form. Just select Ctrl+P and then choose the CutePDF Writer option from the printer list to save the file to your PC.

The National School Quiz

The biggest ever online schools quiz is set to take place on 12 March. Hosted by specially created Avatars, the quiz is aimed at 8 and 9 year old primary school children and will cover curriculum areas from history, science, citizenship, numeracy and literacy, using games and animation to provide interactivity.

Click here to find out more.

The journey to become an ICT Centre of Excellence

Follow Elm Park Primary School on the journey to become an ICT Centre of Excellence by visiting the Becta Next Generation Website - The journey
The school is posting a series of videos showing how they are developing their use of ICT - the next episode looks at internet safety and engaging parents.

ICT for Education Conference

The ICT for Education Conference 2010 in Belfast will field an impressive line up of speakers addressing the issues facing those responsible for using ICT to achieve the highest educational standards and most effective environment in UK schools.

With technology such a key force behind the transformation of our educational landscape, ICT is all pervasive in the building of schools, the preparation and delivery of lessons and the management of schools. ICT has changed our behaviour, raised our expectations and contributed to the greater inclusion of parents, governors, administrators and children in the education system.

The ICT for Education Conference programme will look at how successful schools use ICT within an educational framework and with clear objectives, managing technology rather than being managed by technology. Topics for discussion will include: literacy, learning and well-being through gaming, social networking and mobile technology - behaviour management - parental engagement - safeguarding pupils - the next generation of VLEs - collaborative, project based learning - inspired learning space design

There will also be an exhibition for ICT suppliers and vendors as well as related organisations and charities, which will run from 8am until 4pm. Delegates can visit between the conference sessions (which start at 10am) and during refreshment breaks and lunch.

For full details on the conference including the speaker line-up, and to book your place, go to www.ictforeducation.co.uk.
What's more, book your place before the end of February and receive a discounted delegate rate of 119 +VAT (full price: 169 +VAT).

Either download the booking form from www.ictforeducation.co.uk
or book your place online, using the discount code BFT2010.

For further information on any aspect of the event please call event manager Shelley Cook on 07972 866281

Becta - ICT Excellence Awards

Now entering their fifth year, Becta’s ICT Excellence Awards provide a great opportunity to not only celebrate the amazing work of schools, local authorities and other supporting organisations but to share the experiences of those at the forefront of the use of technology in learning.

The winners of the 2009 awards were announced at the Bristol ceremony on 19 November and there are examples of truly inspirational work amongst the winners and runners-up. To mark the beginning of sharing the winners’ great practice, many schools are opening their doors during the first week of February, to showcase what impressed the judges and to give their visitors the chance to see their work for themselves. In Northern Ireland St Pius X College, Magherafelt will be opening their doors from the 1st to 5th February. Their key areas of best practice include:

• distributed strategic and operational leadership and management of ICT
• pupil independence with ICT
• embedding of ICT throughout whole school
• use of technology to aid transition between phases.

And if this work inspires you and you want to share your story or that of a school that you know, the ICT Excellence Awards 2010 are now open for entries. For more information on the categories and criteria, and to access the online entry forms, go to www.becta.org.uk/excellenceawards. The deadline for entries is 24 March 2010.

Safer Internet Day – 9 February 2010

Safer Internet Day is a European-wide initiative and is the one day in the calendar that will give a focus to internet safety issues such as cyberbullying, dealing with upsetting and illegal content online, sexual abuse and grooming. There are a range activities taking place across the week (from Monday 8th – Friday 12th February) and across the continent to help protect young people online.  You can get involved too.