The Interactive Whiteboard

We certainly didn’t have these in my day….

What an incredible resource! When I was at primary school in the 90’s, the closest we came to using anything other than the blackboard was when the television would be wheeled in once a month. Then the ultimate challenge of man v machine would begin. If the teacher could remember how to turn the VCR on we would see the intended film, however more often than not machine won and we’d end up getting an extra PE lesson!

Today we got to experience some of the fantastic ways the interactive white board can support a lesson. From providing a huge range of pictures and games, to a ‘magic’ pen which can be used to write directly on the screen it was impossible not to appreciate benefits!

I can’t wait to be in a school and using this on a daily basis.

Here’s a video of some of the things you can do with it.

Health and Safety

Health and Safety

One of the topics we looked at in lectures this week was Health and Safety in ICT. I’ll admit it wasn’t one of the things I spent much time reading up on before starting this course – checking I could still do my times tables took priority! However having now looked at the issues surrounding health and safety I can see its importance is on a par with anything else that goes on in a school.

Listed below in bold are the questions we were left to consider at the conclusion of the lecture and I’ve answered them along with plenty of great links to use both and then hopefully after my pgce when I am working in a school.

Who is responsible for safety in schools and what are the key issues?

In school it is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure the health and safety of every child.

Education.gov gives some great pointers as to what a teachers and schools responsibility is in regards to safety and also tells you the key issues to consider

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/pastoralcare/b00198456/principles-of-e-safety

A teacher needs to make sure any websites intended to be used with the class have been checked for inappropriate material before use.

• keep personal information private
• consider the long-term implications of any content posted online
• do not upload or post inappropriate, offensive or illegal content to their own or other online spaces
• read and adhere to any website’s terms of conditions of use – including those around age restrictions.

In addition to providing this information the website offers some great resource websites a teacher can use with a class and these are listed below (all of the websites have copyright permissions for educational use and are child friendly).

• ARKive Education: This provides wildlife videos, images and fact files for classroom use on a wide range of science, ICT and literacy projects
• Living Library: This subscription based website provides access to art, clipart, sound and video clips, categorised by primary or secondary education.
• Pics4Learning: This copyright-friendly image library consists of thousands of images donated by teachers, students and amateur photographers.
• VADS (Visual Arts Data Service) online resource: This online resource for visual arts provides over 100,000 digital images, free for use in education.

I’ve also found a great safe search engine website for children to use -
http://www.wisekids.org.uk/Kids_safe_search_engines.htm

How are parents and carers informed about eSafety? Where can parents find out about health and safety issues regarding their children’s use of the internet?

A group of companies have come together led by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) so they can provide consistent internet safety messages for parents and children on their services. Companies include Sky, BT, BBC, ITV, Facebook, TES, Beatbullying and childnet.

http://www.education.gov.uk/ukccis/groups/a0076219/understanding-and-awareness-of-internet-safety-for-parents-and-children

Another website with advice for children, parents and teachers concerning using the internet safely is http://www.childnet.com/

Here's a nice little video I found that would be great for a parent to watch with a child.

What are the rules about photos of children on a school website?

If you wish to take photos of a child to put on the school website that is fine, however you must make sure the children and the parents or guardians are aware of the photo and the reason why it has been taken.  Further information and clarification of what is allowed can be found on the following website –

www.ico.gov.uk

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/sector_guides/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Practical_application/TAKING_PHOTOS_V3.ashx

How long should you allow a child to work on a pc (in health and safety terms!)

Children shouldn’t use the computer for more than 30 minutes at a time without a break. This should help prevent problems such as eyestrain.

http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/keeping-children-safe-online

This post turned to be a bit longer than planned! But well worth a read! 

The start of things to come…

 This will be my first time writing a blog so expect an improvement in blog entry quality and readability as the week’s progress!
The closest I’ve come to do anything like this in the past, I suppose would have been the twitter account I was tasked with updating at my previous job… this lasted all of 2 weeks (the twitter account, not the job).
I think keeping a record of how the course is progressing will be a fantastic thing to look back on a year from now and hopefully alongside the key components of the ICT module I will be required to include I will be able to inject some of my own thoughts and views on the course as a whole!