Digital Vaults gives you and your kids a place to find raw materials that are arranged in ways that may make more sense to them. The site is set up a bit like a social network.
Blogging is now a worldwide phenomenon with weblogs reaching a potential audience of hundreds of millions.
Blogs have been described as the ultimate in publishing for the people and have been used to challenge governments and the press.
Steve O'Hear, one of Britain's digital evangelists, explores how blogs can be used in schools. Steve finds some enthusiastic primary age bloggers and sees how it helps in literacy, ICT skills and a range of other subjects.
He finds many of the benefits extend beyond the curriculum. Blogging can help pupils:
* Develop confidence
* Improve their self expression
* Get a real sense of fulfilment from publishing their work
In West Blatchington School in Hove, blogging is practised by everyone from the head down. Steve visits the school's after-school blogging club, a special bloggers' assembly and sees weblogs being used in the school's autistic unit.
Get Smart with Art @ the de Young
Written to support the California State Content Standards in language arts, social studies and the visual arts, Get Smart with Art @ the de Young is an interdisciplinary curriculum package that uses art objects as primary documents, sparking investigations into the diverse cultures represented by the Museums' collections. In order to promote implementation, all historical texts are written at the intended grade level, thereby reducing the amount of teacher preparation required. In essence,
Get Smart with Art @ the de Young is a readymade curriculum that simply requires the addition of inquisitive students. Using art objects as the foundation for each lesson, the guides develop visual literacy, historical knowledge, artistic expression, and expository writing skills.
Until recently classes were sent to the library to check out pre-selected books that would have some information about their topic.
Allowing students to search for their information on the web makes teachers often uncomfortable.
* They can't control the content, students encounter
* Overwhelming number of search results
* Inappropriate sites
* Inaccurate information
* Citation
All the above mentioned reasons are valid points, but can't be used as a reason to "stick to the book" when allowing younger students to research.
We do have to prepare them for research in media that is current for our times and one they most likely will use as as their primary source for gathering information as they grow.
there are thousands that are not, schools where the library is still a few
shelves in a corridor, where books are a low priority, where head teachers
believe that all a love of books can do, is better done by a computer. It should
never be a case of either, or. We need both: IT and a great library.
Yes, and I have been in a couple of schools like this, and know of some locally who have closed their libraries because everything is now on the internet!
for a primary school to have a well-stocked, professionally run library
The full title should have been "Eleven Reasons Why a Tablet PC + Digital Projector is Better Than a Whiteboard or Overhead Projector… and Sometimes Smarter Than a Smartboard". My primary point is this: People are still "discovering" what a Tablet PC can do. Once educators realize that they do everything a laptop does PLUS you can draw in the screen, then the next obvious question becomes, "How does this help me in class?" I have some practical examples to share...
powerful web resources that use the increasing amount of primary source materials online and have the power to engage students using digital tools and their desire to express themselves.
The purpose of this site is to take an extensive list of websites that are considered high quality, reliable, and valuable and organize them in a way that even "non-techy" teachers can utilize them. It took around 10 years to collect these resources, but new ones are found every day. All of these websites have been recommended by other teachers and educational organizations and qualify as "the best". You'll find support for all core curriculum areas. In addition, you will find lesson plans, multimedia, and primary sources to enhance your students' learning environment.
"The National Internet2 K20 Initiative brings together Internet2 member institutions and innovators from primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, and museums to extend new technologies, applications, middleware, and content to all educational sectors, as quickly and connectedly as possible."
In teaching, there is a shift of focus that takes place at around 4th grade where literacy instruction changes from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." It is a known phenomenon that a number of students who did quite well in the primary years struggle with this new type of reading.
Twinkl is a great cross-curricular resource rich site for teachers of young learners. A must try site if you teach under 3-7 year olds. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Early+Years