Category: Primary School ICT

Google Cloudcourse is not a learning platform

Posted on by primaryt

"CloudCourse is a course scheduling system. ” — Google Code.

Not a learning platform.  (as claimed by this post)

C’mon people, just because something is a web based tool that can be used WITHIN a learning platform doesn’t mean it IS a learning platform.  Educators are already confused enough with companies offering them learning platforms that don’t do what a learning platform should do according to Becta(RIP) and Wikipedia.

Obviously a lot of people are still confused to what is a learning platform.  I recommend you watch this video.

There is a live version of cloudcourse for YOU TO PLAY WITH here.

It is pretty much irrelevant for Primary Schools, I will try to find a creative way to use it in a primary but don’t hold your breath…

I am waiting on a call/email from Irwin(from the CloudCourse team) who will hopefully disagree with me and prove me wrong.

Does Cloudcourse compete with Frog, Moodle & other learning platforms?  No.

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Dry wipe erasable paint (IWB paint)

Posted on by primaryt


I bought some of this paint from Homebase when it was on special offer.  The paint basically allows you to use a dry wipe marker on your wall.  I used it to make notes and the like (see right hand side)…  So far, so good.
It seems to be working well.  I’m tempted to do the rest of my walls.  

One thing to note:  Prepare your surfaces well, just a quick scotch down of most surfaces wont do.  Also ensure you don’t have any hot lights beaming down on your surface as it may make the paint dry a bit funny..

Next step is to try it with one of these Epson projectors that don’t require an IWB.

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Curtains for Becta

Posted on by primaryt

Well our old friend is gone.  I’m going to be lost without being able to say “this is what Becta recommend”.  I guess it will open up more choice and creativity inside of ICT but I fear it will lead to uncertainty and extra for work for ICT bods trying to figure out best practice.  I’m lucky because I have an army of educators on my twitter network.  I also think Primary Technology may benefit from a slightly more fragmented decision making process inside authorities and nationwide.

Still, sorry to anyone who reads this that is out of work.

Free digital signage alternatives for schools – WordPress and Visible Tweets

Posted on by primaryt

Ever been quoted a rediculous amount of your digital signage software and figured why can’t I just use this old laptop/pc and do it myself? Well now you can, and you don’t need any extra software. These 2 options work through your web browser and are completely free.

Visible tweets

To use visisble tweets you will need a school twitter account and you will probably want to “feed” your twitter account from your school blog or website.  People can then follow your school twitter account and get the latest updates in real time and as you update your website/blog it will automatically update your schools digital signage.  Visible tweets is super easy but is limited to tweets alone so pictures or video are out of the picture….

Live Example

Primary Blogger

Primary Blogger is a blogging platform that supports themes for digital signage.  You can include videos, pictures, vokis, pretty much anything.  Primary Blogger can update itself from an RSS feed so you can have your blog or website anywhere and just tell Primary Blogger to update from that. It is fair to say that without videos it is less visually stimulating than Visible tweets.

Video:

 

Live Example – Guide for how to do it

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