Category: ICT

10 Android Apps for Primary School

Posted on by primaryt
To use an Android phone in your classroom you will find a great deal already available to you on the device however you will probably want to get some applications from the market…

To get an application simply goto your home page on the device, Click Android Market, search for one of the below apps:

FEATURED – Classdroid is an app I work on.  It is open source and free.  It is used as a simple assessment app where a teacher takes a picture of a pupils piece of work, grades it and assigns it to a pupil.  The work is then uploaded to the pupils learning portfolio.  Visit here to find out more about Classdroid



1. Zebra Paint – Paint with your fingers! Pick your favorite color and paint the image. Use the menu button to pick one of the dozen built-in templates. When ready, save your images and share with the world! Tested with 4 to 5 year old kids. Requires a touch screen.

2. Maths Workout – Test your mental maths and exercise your brain once a day. Maths Workout is a daily routine for thousands of players worldwide – both young and old. Get competitive! Play the World Challenge and submit your score for ranking with other players around the world.

3. Brain Genius Deluxe – Get a head start to getting smart by playing through a daily dose of teasing and original brain exercises. Brain Genius Deluxe is the Android game to train your brain, with 24 touch and motion-controlled games as well as bonus puzzles including Sudoku! It’s pure Genius!

4. WordPlayer Art of War – WordPlayer is a book reader that allows you to add to your library from amongst thousands of instantly downloadable books or load epub books. WordPlayer’s page navigation, highlighting, bookmarking, and customizable settings make reading a breeze. Comes with Sun Tzu’s classic book of strategy, Art of War, already installed.

5. My Maps Editor by Google – Create, edit, share, and view personalized maps on your phone synchronized with the My Maps tab on Google Maps. We provide full editing functionality for markers, lines, and shapes, plus you can mark your location using GPS or attach a photo directly from your phone.

6. WikiMobile Encyclopedia – Being a walking encyclopedia is now at your fingertips. With WikiMobile, you carry 2+ million Wikipedia articles with you, including pictures. Faster and uses just a fraction of the network data vs. the Android browser. Download free for a limited time!

7. Google Sky Map – Google Sky Map: A star map for Android. Google Sky Map turns your Android-powered mobile phone into a dynamic window on the night sky. When you point your phone up you will see a map of the brightest stars, constellations, and planets in that part of the sky.

8. Pintail (not educational but useful) – Lost your pho
ne? Find it with an SMS: Pintail replies automatically with your phone’s location to a PIN protected message. Let friends and family ea

sily find out where you are by sharing your PIN number with them: They send an SMS, Pintail replies with your location.

9. School Email (UK only as of yet) – You don’t need to download this! School Email is the easiest and safest service for emailing between pupils and teachers. Pupils emails are checked for sexual predators and bullying. The service runs over Activsync which means pupils are always “up to date”.

10. Keepy Uppy – If you are struggling getting young boys who enjoy football(soccer) to use their device you may want to think about using an app such as Keepy Uppy as a reward for good work.

Review of Fizzbook – Fizzbook spin by zoomstorm (Netbook)

Posted on by primaryt

The Fizzbook is designed for schools, so we’re going to check it out then throw it into a few schools and see what the kids think. First things first though, we need to check the hardware and software to make sure its ready to be abused in a classroom!

Hardware
The touch screen is difficult to use with a finger, it requires a sharp point, I’m usually too lazy to get the stylus out but I do prefer a touch screen over a mouse pad.
As you can see in this video, the stylus / writing recognition doesn’t work well enough..
I did a skype test and the camera and audio quality was fine but the screen decided to develop a bug and wouldn’t “Flip” the screen to its foreign alignment.. See video:

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor passed all 4 system requirements so this device should be Windows 7 ready however I’m not sure that the placement of the OEM sticker (hidden under the battery on the inside of the device) is the smartest idea ever. Especially if you begin an install without mains connected…..
The speakers are crisp and clear and it has a separate input for a mic and output for external speakers/headphones.
Battery life is 4.5 hours which is less than a EEE (Sorry if I keep comparing!).
The keys are usual netbook size, no big surprised there, they are tricky for adults to use but I think the kids should get on great..
The wireless on the device picks up points fine and connection is easy and sensible. One thing however that is important to note is that the device has 802.11 b/g and N support which is great and is incorrectly documented on most sites stating that is only has b/g!
The device can be dropped from 50cm although I’m not sure that telling the kids that is a good idea…. The attitude of providing a device that “can” be dropped will only lead to tears later in life when they receive a device they can’t be dropped..
Finally, there is a rattling noise that comes from the tab on the handle, this tab is a great idea because it means you will know who’s or what class this device belongs to!! Genius!
Software / Operating system
I’m guessing no one made the decision to include the Windows Live bar in IE but it’s there and it takes up far too many pixels on a very small screen. Removing the Windows Live bar and favourites is a must just so you can see the actual content you want to see!
Bullguard is installed by default and proves to be a real pain in the wazoobi.. Uninstalling this will make your life easier and your experience happier.
I did a skype video call test and the audio and video quality were average to good, the camera seems to rotate sturdily on its pivot points which is always nice when small fingers are about!
The start up time to desktop was 90 seconds, 15 of these seconds just gave me a black screen before the BIOS logo even popped up.
Below is video of me using it on the net, accessing flash games and beginning an internet session as a pupil would.

Now its time for kids to tell me what they think!

More pictures of the device can be found here

Do we really need local servers? A Web2 school

Posted on by primaryt

While deep thinking my “Not a VLE” Project I began doing a topology graph for schools information and data flow, part of this process lead me into looking at processes that local servers do to ensure teaching and learning is continuous.

When I say that Primary School ICT is complicated, some of you may be shocked by just how complex it is. An average school may have just 2 servers and 50 or so clients but the amount of processes involved to deliver the perfect desktop experience is huge.

A simplified diagram of an average Primary School’s ICT from a process point of view:
Recently we have found an upsurge in schools buying EEE’s with XP Home and we have considered leaving Home on and seeing how they get on:
Here are the initial negative reasons why XP Home without a domain controller(server) is not suitable for a school…
(A Pupil may also be a teacher)
The problems:
  1. No Account restrictions – Pupils can break their device.
  2. No Centrally manageable Anti-Virus – Pupils may get a virus and the school wouldn’t know about it.
  3. No Windows update monitoring – Pupils may not have the latest windows on their device so may be at risk.
  4. No Authentication to printers – Pupils would not be able to 1 click print as easily.
  5. No ability to deploy software – Software would not be able to be “pushed” from the server meaning each piece would have to be individually installed.
The Fixes:
  1. No Account restrictions – Keep an image ready to restore from DVD/USB HD, this is not a complicated process and should be done as part of best practice anyway. All locally saved documents are remotely backed up using either Syncplicity, humyo or remote backup from Primary Technology
  2. No Centrally manageable Anti-Virus – An organization level web managed antivirus web2 application
  3. No Windows update monitoring – Teach pupils to periodically check for the latest windows update
  4. No Authentication to printers – Stop printing, use email, blog, etc.
  5. No ability to deploy software – Use web2 applications – Legacy applications could be supported by Thinapp or an app publishing platform?
The advantages to the Fixes:
  1. No Account restrictions – Increased Data protection as pupil information only lies on the MIS server (Which could eventually be easily hosted)
  2. No Centrally manageable Anti-Virus – Much easier for technical support providers to manage large number of devices and for schools to check status.
  3. No Windows update monitoring – Children will know how to update their systems in the future.
  4. No Authentication to printers – Record is kept of what/when is sent and we don’t waste paper/ink
  5. No ability to deploy software – Web2 applications tend to be available anywhere and do not require updating.
The disadvantages to the Fixes:
  1. No Account restrictions – Time spent in restoring devices and loss of local copy of data will mean a restore process from remote backup.
  2. No Centrally manageable Anti-Virus – Increased internet bandwidth usage
  3. No Windows update monitoring – Large updates could take a long time.
  4. No Authentication to printers – Email, blog systems could be abused.
  5. No ability to deploy software – Web2 companies and/or their hosting providers can have issues leading to downtime and unavailability.
The other angle to approach this from is a web3 angle which would be a cloud OS however for true data protection a school should always keep their own copy of any document they have worked on.