Google Translate

You want to develop links between your students and those in another country but are worried that your language skills may not be up to it? Why not try the new translation tool from Google.
Simply enter the text and choose the language that you require and hey presto! a fully translated version of your text appears that can be copied and pasted into any document including emails and discussion forums.

Website blocking

We all know about the frustration that we feel when we come across a link to a website that is blocked on the network that we are using. In a recent article on Flux - the Futurelab blog - Ben Kirkland talks about the missed opportunities associated with blocked sites and argues that although eSafety is obviously a very important issue just blocking websites may not solve the problem. Read his article to learn more - what are your views on this controversial topic?

Spezify - a great visual search tool

Spezify is a search tool presenting results from a large number of websites in different visual ways. Spezify have taken web search further, away from endless lists of blue text links and towards a more intuitive experience.

"We mix all media types and make no difference between blogs, videos, microblogs and images. Everything communicates and helps building the bigger picture.

We collect websites and are aiming to use as many relevant, free and open API:s as possible to generate extensive and diverse search results."

Joanne wins Becta Next Generation Learning Award

Teaching Awards 2009 Winner. Joanne Murray from Cookstown Primary School has just secured 'The Becta Award for Next Generation Learning in Northern Ireland.'

Joanne Murray’s reputation precedes her. Among her many accolades are several awards for her work using technology in the classroom and her methods are to be featured in a new book about ICT in learning by an American educationist.

WolframAlpha computational knowledge engine

Making the world's knowledge computable. Check out this exciting new search engine! Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. Enter your question or calculation, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and a growing collection of data to compute the answer. Based on a new kind of knowledge-based computing...

Free Moodle Hosting!!

KeytoSchool provides FREE Moodle Hosting. Once you have registered, you will have a unique domain name, 2.5 Gb of storage and 50 Gb of bandwidth. You can also:

• enrol up to 1000 users
• upload files up to 32Mb - standard for many Moodle installations
  
• choose from a wide selection of themes and personalise them for your school
• ftp directly

Ideas to Inspire

Are you looking for new ideas to make the learning in your classroom more exciting and engaging? If so, check out this fantastic site: http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/. The site has been set up by Mark Warner, a teacher in Kent, UK. It gives practical examples of how software, such as Voicethread, Prezi, Etherpad, Wordle and Twitter, can be used in the classroom. The list of examples is continually expanding as more and more teachers are getting involved with their own suggestions. You can also contribute any of your own ideas. Really worth checking out.