iPads for notepads at Lisburn school

Pupils at a grammar school in Lisburn are being encouraged to swap notepads for iPads. Wallace High has negotiated a leasing deal for the computer tablets made by Apple which will cost parents £170 a year. A total of 530 pupils in years eight to eleven at the school will be able to use the new iPads in class and take them home. The super slim computers can be used for internet research, playing music, photographs and reading books. The school will use its own technology staff and budget to provide applications for the pupils to use. It is understood there will be special insurance for the iPads as well as tracking software in case they are lost or stolen.

Birchfield Austerity Sale

Latest content offer from Birchfield.

All of their curriculum content, games and tools for your VLE is priced at £2500 per school.
This includes 15,000+ curriculum content VLE resources for 15 subjects, 14 VLE games, 34,000 curriculum questions and a content editing tool which can SCORM your own content. Bespoke prices are available for Area Partnership Communities by calling Jo Western using the contact details below. To find out what comes with the whole school solution offer please click
here. (NB: offer prices will not be listed on the site, this is a fax/e-mail only offer).
Nb. The offer price is not on the website. Don’t miss it. *PLUS First 100 schools to order will get an extra 10% discount!
Jo Western
Birchfield Interactive Ltd
ITV Studios
Culverhouse Cross
Cardiff
CF5 6XJ
Tel: 029 2059 7000
Fax: 029 2059 9456

Zondle - games to support learning

Zondle is a free and easy to use website that allows children to play games in supporting learning. The user range can be from Foundation stage up to GCSE, with a wide range of games available in various topics and subjects. It’s really easy to create an account which allows you full access to the site. Watch this short video on the main page for a brief synopsis

Tim Rylands, Learning Consultant

Tim Rylands is a Learning Consultant who delivered two sessions at the recent ICT for Education conference in Belfast's Hilton Hotel on Friday 11th March. Tim is a gifted and inspirational teacher who presents results from his work in an imaginative and charismatic way. Tim uses a wide range of creative and mostly free web 2.0 tools to encourage and empower children to express their creativity and make significant gains in attainment. To find out more about Tim and his recommendations for top tools check out the links below.

• Tim's blog
• ICT2 Inspire (web tools)

Employment in IT Industry in N. Ireland

The research, ‘Technology Insights 2011’, shows that despite the recent recession and ongoing high levels of unemployment, demand for IT professionals in Northern Ireland has increased over the last year, with 16,000 people currently employed in the IT & Telecoms professional workforce – representing just over 2% of total employment. 60% of these IT & Telecoms professionals are employed in the IT & Telecoms industry itself, while the remainder are spread across every other sector of the economy.

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