I'm a member of a Microsoft Network of teachers. We met for a two day conference in November, hosted at Microsoft HQ - we were there for the launch of Windows 7!

The key to a good network is communication, but the members of this network are in Wales, Scotland and the North East, as well as more central locations. Obviously there is e-mail, and some of the group "tweet". However, this isn't a replacement for the close collaboration that took place during the conference. There is an on-line community, with a forum and resource area, but still not as interactive as a proper chat.

We have regular conference calls built in to the programme. I have a phone number to call, and a PIN to access the conference. I call at a set time (usually 4pm on a given day) and I'm able to talk to the other members of the Network.

I was a bit sceptical at first, but a clear etiquette and skillful chairing by the convenor meant that everyone had a say, and the experience was very rewarding.

I've noticed a conference facility built in to Fronter. Would teacher network meetings in Norfolk benefit from some on-line provision? It's a thought!

Give pupils a dictionary and a piece of A4 paper. Tell them they are going on holiday and need to pack 10 items. Let them look up the words and write them down in the TL only. They then swap papers with a partner who has to look the words up and possibly draw them. Obviously this would work with many different topics and could be done sensibly or it could be a silly list. A variation could be that the partner has to copy the words under the column heading of sensible or silly. This activity can also work if you need time to do one to one assessment with pupils whilst the class get on with something without continually asking for help.

Increasingly I find that I am using my smartphone to access content on the net. Twitter, Facebook and Google are all formatted to fit a mobile screen, and I can access mobile versions of The Independent and the BBC. Unfortunately, some of my favourite sites are not compatible with a 640x360 screen, and I do a lot of swiping, scrolling and zooming to read the articles that interest me.

To see what I mean, use your phone to look at "Arts and Letters Daily" - (click here to visit)! It's a daily digest of all the interesting articles (world-wide!!!, but it is formatted in a three-column layout, which doesn't easily fit my phone screen, even in landscape.

I'm going to try "Feed2Mobile" to see how well it fits my RSS feeds. Now that students' PAYG mobiles come with remarkable amounts of web-download time, I want to see whether putting homework updates into an RSS feed which automatically updates is helpful for students who use their phones "properly"! Hopefully Fronter has an RSS feature! My concern would be that Feed2Mobile is unregulated, and it's possible that my feed could be listed alongside some less savoury content.

Feed2Mobile comes from the same people who provide my QR Code Barcode Reader (Kaywa).Read this barcode to go to my Mobile Blog!

If you haven't got a reader installed on your phone, there are plenty available - try some of the following sites:

Kaywa Reader

I-nigma

Get-Jar (this is a mobile software site - it lists several readers for download)

Check your mobile tariff before you get busy - make sure you aren't going to exceed your download limits, and check how much it costs to go on-line before you even start!!!

I found this article interesting:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/virtual-solution-to-a

It's interesting to note the steps recommended by the consultant to establish a reliable network, and it's particularly interesting to see that Google is mentioned as a solution.

I've been using Google Docs for some time (even found a way to write and edit documents on my phone!). The word processor application is very similar to Word, and documents are easily shared simply by adding an e-mail address to it. 

It will be interesting to see whether Fronter becomes as easy to use.

No - not a nostalgic nod to the "good ole days" when the cane ruled.

Rather, it's a reference to this article on the BBC News Website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8483615.stm

37% of Secondary Students use their home PCs (and Apples, if they are rich enough!) for  study. This contrasts with only 30% of them using computers at school.

"There is an increasing blurring between learning-time and leisure-time and so computers in the home are becoming as important as those in the classroom," says Ray Fleming, from Microsoft. This begs several questions:

• What are we doing to support students as they use their computers at home?
• How can we guide and influence students to use "good practice" outside of the school environment?
• How do we harness young people's enthusiasm for using ICT.

Just as an aside, an informal survey I did with some Sixth Formers indicate that at any one time in an evening when students are working on their computers, there are as many as 14 "friends" registering as on-line on a Facebook page. It does make me wonder whether the school based VLE's days are numbered, and schools will move towards using Facebook groups and Twitter to encourage study in increasingly innovative ways.

As the mobile phone ads used to say . . . "The Future's Bright!"

My thanks to Nadia for allowing me to drone on about computers at her seminar. The slides are available in the files area here on my Learning Community webspace. You'll also find the presentations I've done in other places on ICT.

A lot of people have been blogging, tweeting and generally being noisy about the BETT Event in London. The latest educational techologies are being showcased, including the latest software applications and gadgets.

The keynote speech from Prof Stephen Heppel was reported on the BBC Website - he makes some interesting comments about mobile technologies!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8457679.stm

I particularly liked this quotation:
"Turned off devices equals turned off children. Sensible schools use mobile technology to their advantage, putting up a telephone number about an issue such as bullying and getting pupils to text their views," said Prof Heppell.

 

On Holiday, so will be brief!

I'm a big fan of Google Docs - click here to see a little of why that might be!

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/12-things-you-didn-t-

Have you seen the successor to the Overhead Projector? It's called the Visualiser, and it is basically a digital camera in a goose-neck mount which allows you to project an image from on your desktop (that's your real desktop, not your Computer Screen).

 

You can place a sheet of paper under the head of the Visualiser, and write notes on the paper while the whole thing is projected onto your screen for the class to see. I think it may be less useful for projecting text, but ideal for:

• Demonstrating techniques in Textiles, Cooking and Technology
• Showing small objects (such as Religious or Historical Artefacts) to a class.
• Demonstrating note taking or annotating a book.

The cheapest are around £250. The base on this model includes zoom controls, and it connects to a computer to allow video and stills capture (though it has a small memory of its own, so should work without a PC).

In the spirit of the classic Dewar bodge, I've got similar results from a high-end webcam, costing £60. Get one with a megapixel resolution and decent optics, and you're away!You could always gaffer-tape the webcam to an Anglepoise!

This is the webcam I used - the software includes special settings to correct for low light, and the autofocus keeps even text pin-sharp. The clamp on the back of the camera allows you to fix it onto something (like an Anglepoise...).

You can create amazing word-clouds on-line at Wordle.net.

Simply paste a body of text into the box, and click create. You could:

• Make Key-Word posters
• Summaries of notes or essays
• Test the quality of an essay - is its word-cloud understandable as an essay on a topic?

I made this Wordle out of the pre-amble to a GCSE Spec!