News update: social networking, searching, projects (including a prize draw),Coming of Age and Ofsted

Find out about a prize draw, how to find out about the next edition of Coming of Age, a social networking survey and more.

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What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.

Information and Communications Technology in UK schools -– characteristics of success

This Special Edition of Practical ICT is based on the Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) report called “The Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2006-07, published on 17 October 2007.

The original report summarises the outcomes of around 36,000 routine
inspections and regulatory visits of services for children and learners.
What I have done is to distil what the report says about Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) – “educational technology” – and draw some conclusions about what it means for leaders and managers of ICT in schools, even those not working in England or Wales.

In so doing I have reduced the amount of reading required from 124 pages to 6! I have set out the report into 8 areas of interest, with a number of key messages (implications) for each one.

To download this and also to join in the debate at our Ning community, subscribe to the Practical ICT eJournal. Click here to find out more.

Educational exhibitions, and other learning opportunities

Cilla discusses her recent experiences at an exhibition, and the effect they had on her willingness to engage with the companies concerned.

What lessons can be drawn that could be applied in school?

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What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.

Computers in Classrooms latest issue: a social networking survey, using iPods in Religious Education lessons, coal-mining, Flashmeeting, and much, muc

The latest issue of Computers in Classrooms is now available and contains articles on the following subjects:

• A news update, including the chance to get your students to take part in a survey about social networking, and a prize draw.
  
  
• FlashMeeting in Education -- a wonderful tool for holding online meetings with text, video and audio. Paul Harrington explains. Plus a chance to take part in a meeting.
  
  
• Boring the kids into submission -- the title speaks for itself, and in any case it's too tedious to enlarge upon .
  
  
• What’s in a name? Cilla Pickering talks about B-learning.
  
  
• There’s only one thing worse than being talked about, and that’s being talked about too much -- my comments about comments.
  
  
• Finding your way around the Educational Technology -- ICT in Education website: never get lost again.
  
  
• Making it funky -- RE, iPods and MPs -- Paul Hopkins talks about using iPods in the Religious Education curriculum.
  
  
• From Coal Face to Chalk Face! Nigel Willetts started his working life as a coal miner; now he is a highly successful teacher of educational technology. What lessons did he learn from his previous career that he has brought to bear in his current one?
  
  
• K12 Online : Off to a flying start. The first few presentations of this online conference come under the microscope.

To access it online you will need your user ID and password, as this newsletter is for subscribers only. Not a subscriber? It's free, and you can sign up here.

The limits of technology

We in the educational technology business are accustomed to thinking about where and how technology can be used. But what about circumstances in which technology should not be used, or perhaps should be used in a different way to the usual? Are there situations in which using technology is actually anti-educational, in the sense of doing young people a disservice for their future lives?
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What Web 2.0 projects are you running? Please take 5 minutes to complete our survey.

Ask the children

One of the things we adults seem not to be so good at is asking our pupils. This arises in all sorts of contexts, and it is a grave mistake on our part. How can you involve your pupils in their own education?

Good news coming

I am working in earnest on the new Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW Worldwide Web, finishing off the latest Computers in Classrooms, and catching up with notes from various conferences.

To keep up-to-date with the progress on Coming of Age, subscribe to the Coming of Age e-bulletin. It's the first place to turn to for breaking news about the book -- and to be first in line to download it when the finished version comes out.

In fact, if you're quick off the mark, you can even contribute to it. Are you running a Web 2.0 project? If so, why not submit it as an example? Complete the survey form, which will take literally just 3 or 4 minutes. You'll find it here.

To enjoy a really good magazine-style read, subscribe to Computers in Classrooms. The next issue features articles by Paul Hopkins, Paul Harrington, Cilla Pickering and me.

If you're in a leadership or management role in terms of educational technology, subscribe to the Practical ICT eJournal. It costs £21.15 (approx. $40), for which you get a very practical journal at least 6 times a year, plus access to hundreds of articles, with a focus on techniques for improving the service you offer and making yourself more promotable.

You can subscribe to any of these by filling out a very short form here, and, in the case of the eJournal, making a payment. Once you've subscribed to any one of them, you can subscribe to the others by logging in at the members' page and then clicking on their name in a drop-down list, ie you don't have to fill in the form again.

Free samples are available by signing up to the Free Samples bulletin here.