There is a change taking place in how schools approach ICT, one that has been coming for some time but is at the point of moving into the mainstream. A subtle but powerful shift that sees ICT build connections with the Maker Movement as a tool for solving what Bronwyn Moreton speaking at the ICT Educators of NSW conference describes as the 'I wish it would . . .' moment where a learner discovers that their technology doesn't do everything they wished it would.
By ICT Mindtools I refer to ICT tools that necessarily engage users in higher order thinking. Students cannot use Mindtools without thinking deeply about the task at hand. Mindtools require students to be creative and to think and make connections for themselves.
We love this document that Mark Anderson has produced for a training day at his school in North Somerset, UK. It succinctly provides the name of Web2.0 tools and gives you examples of how to use them. From our experience teachers did need quick, easy and fast ways to connect to new technology ideas. We think Mark achieves this very well!
A superb wiki/web hosting site with lets you create web pages for your class or school or use it as a Wiki and let your pupils/colleagues create and build the page together. The basic account is free and if you sign up as an educator you can get extra storage space.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools
A brilliant, 'must try' web tool for group to text/voice chat, with a collaborative whiteboard, document viewer and more, all in real time. I'm really loving this tool at the moment for joint language lessons with my school's Chinese partner school. No sign in require, however register for free for extra features.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
A superb 'Must Try' HTML based collaborative whiteboard site. The tools are wonderfully simple. No log in required. Just share the page link to work collaboratively. Combine with a tool like Skype to share a lesson across classes, schools or even countries.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
A UK site that raises funds for your school by everyone shopping online as usual. Shop on thousands of website and get back a percentage for your school. This is a great resource for parents and the community to use.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools
A superb site which I have been using to generate child friendly passwords for children at my school. It uses a huge word bank and you can choose from two difficulty levels.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
More and more people are throwing away their USB memory sticks (but probably just losing them down the back of the sofa) in favour of cloud storage. This is a wonderful storage site, download and multi-platform app which is very similar to Dropbox. A synced folder sits on you devices and can be updated and accessed from any device. You can generating a url to share folders or files with other people. It works just fine on a computer with Dropbox already installed and the free account gives you 15GB of storage. That's enough storage where 'tidy' filing schools might begin to migrate their school network storage to the cloud for free - and that's exciting. Additional storage is available for a price.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
An amazing download for PC and mobile devices allows users to communicate by 'push-to-talk' in a walkie-talkie style. A great resource for communicating on school trips, host a virtual meeting, or just getting teachers/students communicating across your school.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
Use social networking to organise your school by setting up it's own with this site, which is very similar to Twitter. The free version does have some limitations which means it is not very suitable for students to use, but this communication and collaboration tool would be great for the staff.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools
This is an amazing collaborative whiteboard where multiple users can edit a multimedia board in real time. The site allows you to signup and sign in using a Google account and you can access and add your files and media on your Google Docs/Drive area making this a fabulous companion to schools using Google Apps for education. You can write by typing or you can write in 'freehand' so you can use your interactive whiteboard to write and archive the lesson to use or refer to later.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
An amazing augmented reality app for Android and iPad. Bring animation to still objects, make your children's written work come to life and make dragons fly around your school... through your camera at least. Share your creations with other users to make geo-location designs which will interact with anyone with the app.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
Safer Internet Day is an annual event in early February that highlights e-safety. This site has many good child-friendly resources and downloadable school packs about e-safety.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
This site encourages children to be creative and share ideas. It's a cross between a blog and a digital canvas and formatting is really simple. Users just drag and drop the images and text however they wish. There is also a teacher sign up option, which lets you quickly add a whole class or school.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
A beautifully made Twitter-like social network for schools that supports photos, videos, files and embed html. The site also has a blog feature, calendar and many other fab features. You can set your class to private or public.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools