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Ian Yorston explains why investment in ICT doesn't necessarily pay "If you had to spend a million pounds, you'd really hope to have something to show for it. Yet most schools have spent at least that on ICT and get nothing obvious in return - aside from a few hundred PCs running Windows XP and a handful of smart gadgets."

Ian Yorston explains why the current investment in ICT doesn't pay "If you had to spend a million pounds, you'd really hope to have something to show for it. Yet most schools have spent at least that on ICT and get nothing obvious in return - aside from a few hundred PCs running Windows XP and a handful of smart gadgets."

This is my latest blog post - it is about my draft ICT / Social media policy for secondary (high) schools. You can read and comment on it here. I would really like your feedback. Here is an excerpt! My primary source was Katie Lepi's Crowdsourced School Social Media Policy Now Available (here). Her work is based on over four-hundred crowd sourced edits! I have specifically included her in the Creative Commons license. I was also influenced by Doug Belshaw's Acceptable Use Policy - feedback required! (here).The comments on his posting are very interesting! I was inspired by Max Senge's A hippocratic Oath for Techies & Policymakers (here). Its simplicity is its strength!

From 2009

" * About Russell Stannard * ELT/ESL Videos * Web 2.0/ICT Videos * Russell's Research Videos * 9 Great Spelling Sites for ELT * Free on-line screen capture tool * Zimmer Twins-Brilliant Cartoon/Dialogue Tool for Kids * Word Magnets-Great vocabulary/Grammar Tool * How to use Survey Monkey * My favourite Website on the Web * 5 Simple but brilliant ELT tools * Great Text Tool called WordSift * Wolfram Alpha Great Question Making Tool * Fun Viral Marketing Tools * Amazing 3D dialogue builder * 2 amazing presentation tools * Best Pronunciation Sites * Best ELT sites 2008 * Great dictation site * Wordle-Great Vocab Site * My favourite Listening Site * 10 vocab sites for kids * ELT Videos with subtitles * Brilliant Comic Site * 7 Great Fun sites for ELT * Unusual Vocabulary Site * Really Fun Dialogue Building Tool * A site for drawing&Recording * 11 great sites for teaching English * Recording & Searching Podcasts with Podamatic * Good sites for ELT Video content * Review of the best ELT podcasts * Voicethread- Presentation tool * Fun drawing tool Humanising Language Teaching The Blogs I use most for ELT * Larry Ferlazzo's blog * Nik Peachey's blog * Blog at IH Barcelona * Ozge's Blog * Carl's Blog Newsletter For extra free materials and training videos, sign up to our monthly newsletter! Email Address: Confirm Email Address: Name: Organisation/Institution: "

Andrew Douch's blog on ICT and education.

ICT leader's blog

Awesome, informative, loads of stuff on teaching ICT and music education in primary schools.

some good tips on helping students learn how to make appropriate comments on blogs

A great augmented reality model of the Earth and Moon. Great for explaining orbits and the moon's effects on tides. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools

the JISC developing digital literacies programme recognises that digital literacies are always plural and are highly context-specific. They go well beyond the 'basic skills' mentioned in the Royal Society report. The digital world is not a single, homogenous space and, as a result, the literacies we require to traverse and interact in this space vary enormously. This does not make for an easy, one-size-fits-all knowledge transfer approach but it certainly recognises the diverse world in which we live, both online and offline.

Mark 29th Feb by getting your class to take part in the world's biggest blogging project. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

This online tool converts the text on webpages to a downloadable MP3 to listen to quickly. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

This is a fun, cute, social 3D island world designed especially with children in mind. Children make an avatar and follow a quick tutorial and explanation of safety rules. The children can take their characters on quests, play educational games and interact with other users of the site. A fabulous feature of the site is that users are encouraged to 'make and do' offline as well. These activities can be uploaded to a scrapbook and multimedia blog. Offline activities also generate points in the game. The scrapbook is defaulted to private and no photos of children will be approved by moderators if the scrapbook is public. All the usual safety features are in place, including a 'report' and 'block' other users button. The basic account with most features is free, but there are optional 'paid for' extras. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

A great site for generating logos. Great for websites, blogs or even for pretend letters for 'Mantle of the Expert' and other activities. 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

Educational Origami is a blog , and a wiki, about the integration of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) into the classroom, this is one of the largest challenges that I feel we as teachers face. It's about 21st Century Learning and 21st Century Teaching. Marc Prensky coined the now popular and famous phrase "Digital natives and digital immigrants" in his two papers by the same name. Ian Jukes talks about Digital Children. The world is not as simple as saying teachers are digital immigrants and students digital natives. In fact people fit into both camps. We know that experience, like using a computer, will change the structure of our brain, This is a concept called Neuroplasticity. We also know that, the more intense the experience, the more profound the change. Our students, who often have a greater exposure to technology, are likely to be more neurologically adapted, but adults can as easily be "Digital Natives". I made this wiki on request from Miguel Guhlin after I blogged about matching ICT tools to traditional classroom practice and Bloom's Taxonomy.The wiki has grown a little since then.

Great tool to build interesting websites/webquests. Choose from tons of templates, very user-friendly!

This is my website builder of choice. This easy to use, drag and drop tool allows you to build beautiful flash websites in a matter of minutes. You can embed these pages into other sites and blogs. There are lots of good widgets including email forms and comment boxes. You can also build mobile sites. Build them by choosing a template and background and add the info, links and images you want. See my example at http://j.mp/ICTmob. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Make a simple online puzzle with an uploaded image. Play or embed on your site or blog. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools+-+Miscellaneous

This is an amazing solution for storing, sharing, and back up your data. The ability to access files from any computer & mobile devices makes this a great solution. Up to 2GB storage free! Learn more about the public folder to share files with others, while keeping your other files private. I have it on both my Apple computers and on two PCs. This rocks!

@Jonathon, thanks for sharing the blog post. I'll pass that along to others. @Cathy, thanks for confirming it's been a useful tool.

One of the leading and best online file storage option. It works across many different devices and is great for teachers who like to travel light. Download required. Basic package is free with 'paid for' option with more storage. Easily share files with others. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools

Looking for a conference with a difference? What story do you have to tell? The #motm13 Unconference is built around stories for the purpose of making strong connections with other passionate educators who are integrating ICT with pedagogy.