BusinessName

e-Safety is high on the agenda for the LA and both CLC's download the guidance from BECTa
esafety.pdf
There is also a template which has been written which schools are welcome to use as a basis for a school policy. This is in the Learning Platform, (Library - files - e-safety - schoolAUP template) if you do not yet have access to the Learning Platform then send Mike an email and he will send you the document.

ICT Team

We had our two meetings this week and they were both very well attended, both CLC's managed to delight our palettes at least with wonderful food!

For those of you old enough to remember Granny's Garden and Flowers of Crystal we have a real treat. 4Mation have placed the audio stories from these games on their site as Mp3 files Trevor Carter helped them out as they had to take the audio from a reel to reel which he happened to have so he converted the audio for present day audiences.
We would like to use these stories and integrate them with the technology of today you can book a session at the Gateshead CLC where we can use the soundtracks with applications such as Photo-story using pupils drawings or animations using Digi-blues or 2animate. We will showcase pupils work on the website. If you are interested in using the CLC to create the stories then contact us to book a session. If you want to take part in this in the school then simply go to the 4Mation website and download the podcasts

The day is nearly here if you have not been in the loop then this is your last chance. We want as much involvement from schools as possible so login to the School report website and place your comments about what is happening in your school give us the website and we will investigate and feature it in the news tomorrow Look to the BBC from Breakfast television and online and on Digital as the news airwaves will be brought to you by students across the country including Dryden, Thomas Hepburn and Whickham Schools.
To those taking part.....Have a great day
Don't forget to look at the chicks they have been appearing at regular intervals since early this morning and watch out for the special report.
Mike

We've just added 3 hours of new programming on our web radio station running in rotation Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 8.00pm. It's a sample of what Gateshead schools are doing with us at the CLC in sessions with Iain Knox, Mike Carter and Peter Bolger. Amongst the mix you'll hear:
Songs from St Alban's Catholic School, Everest Diaries by St Joseph's Gateshead, Witches' Spells from Whickham Parochial, ScienceBox from Thomas Hepburn School and some fab French from the children at Windy Nook. You can check out the work of Arena North, a young people's theatre group who visit us on Thursday evenings and listen to a professional documentary about Robert Westall as a companion piece to our westallswar.org website.

Listen in to Gateshead CLC Web Radio

Get involved...book a web radio session with us on 0191 460 2900

Deadline Tuesday 12th January breaking news here at the Gateshead CLC. Dryden school who have been working very hard to get ready for the School Report Day in March are the main feature on the BBC School Report website today. Watch out for their reports about the news in the North East
Click below to follow their work.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/7188970.stm

Well done Dryden School!

New look website is now live -Click Here

On the site you will find:

* Common Assessment Framework including Early Intervention Fund
application downloads

* Online booking for Common Assessment Framework practitioner and
manager training

* Gateshead Children and Young People's Partnership minutes,
partnership agreement and information

* Information about all aspects of change for children work, including
Targeted Youth Support and Area Based Working

* Our new Children and Young People's Plan Review and Joint
commissioning strategy

* Local Safeguarding Children Board information including training
directory and booking form

* Information about the Education Improvement Partnership
* Information sharing guidance for practitioners

* Archived JAR reports

* Links to many useful sites

* And more!

We hope all our colleagues had an enjoyable break over the Summer.
May we remind schools who have signed up to the Service Level Agreement that you are entitled to time from us for in service training and we will work with you to fulfill your needs. To arrange dates just contact the ICT team.

We are busy putting the finishing touches to our new revamped radio station and we hope the schools will take advantage of coming to the Gateshead City Learning Centre to create a radio programme. To encourage young people to get involved we have got licenses for music which will allow pupils to intersperse the programme with music (not just copyright free music).

Keep on looking at the ictgateshead.org site for up to date news.

The ICT Team

Many thanks to all the colleagues who attended both meetings in the CLCs last week and this. We hope you found them useful and you feel more informed about the work we do and how we can help you deliver the curriculum more effectively.
I have been given some ideas for Theme days which I have listed below. I would be grateful if you could have a think about these and give some feedback through the comments facility and add any of your own.
Ideas for theme days
Seasides
Jungles
Weather
Space
Going on a Bear Hunt
Many thanks for these and your continued support.
ICT Team

The annual ICT Conference will take place on July 12th 2007 at Gateshead CLC we are looking forward to your attendance as we have some fantastic things to share with you. Keep looking here to find more information about the event.
ICT team

SMART Technologies has launched its World Teachers’ Day competition for 2007. Over 100 countries celebrate this day on 5th October and SMART, with its commitment to education around the world, is running the second annual competition to raise awareness of the contribution teachers make to children’s lives.

To enter all a teacher has to do is fill in the entry form available at http://www.steljes.co.uk/Education/World+Teacher+Day/ and send in a video of themself teaching using a SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard. Each film should last about four minutes and show how the teacher really integrates the board into everyday teaching.

Teachers from around the world are invited to enter. The prizes will be distributed among five global regions – Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East and North America.

* 75 finalists will be chosen (15 from each region) to win an iPod shuffle.

* One winner from each region will then win a SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

* Of the five regional winners, one winner, if chosen from the UK and Ireland, will win an all-inclusive trip to attend NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Entries must be received by 21st July (original date of 21st June now extended), and winners will be announced on World Teachers' Day, 5th October, 2007.

If you have any teachers who you think may be interested in this, please feel free to forward this email, and tell them to find out more at www.smarttech.com/wtd.

Marine Rescue Land Rover 300 TDi

The people on the boat didn't have to wait long for the rescue to arrive...

The distressed vessel was hooked up to the tug and began its journey back to safety...

While on-lookers, including a camera crew, watched on from the riverbank...

And eventually, the boat was towed along the river, under the watchful eye of rescue crew and camera man...

Today there was drama in the river Tyne. A ferry boat taking a leisure cruise got into difficulty and needed rescuing.

As I was finishing off some work before going home at the end of the week feeling tired and in need of rest I looked out of the window of the office and saw this sight......

........and now I feel regenerated and ready to face the weekend.

Do you feel you need to gain confidence in presentation?

Do you feel awkward about standing up in front of colleagues to give presentations?

If so then why not look at this course for professionals being held at the Gateshead CLC Thursday 24th May.

For more details
Click Here

If you are running the "Classic" version of Sophos Anti-Virus (SAV) you may have noticed a message warning that this product is coming to an end. The new release of SAV is now available for download.

Download SAV here

For further advice and information regarding this upgrade, call Gateshead CLC 0191 4602900.

Hi everyone and welcome back after the Easter holidays. I hope you have had a relaxing time and your batteries are well charged.

Just a reminder that all schools are entitled to 5 days at each of the City Learning Centres. If you want to do something special with your class then contact us by email or telephone and we will design activities to fit in with what you are doing in the curriculum.

We have a new portable radio station which we are busy getting to grips with and once this is done we will be able to offer pupils the chance to be a DJ on Gateshead CLC Radio keep an eye out for details.

On Monday 26th 2007 we played host to Kathryn a teacher of English from New Zealand. We showed her around the facilities and shared our vision of ICT in education with her. She also visited Whickham School to get a flavour of school life in Gateshead.

She is touring around the country visiting various schools looking at how ICT is deployed especially within English.
Kathryn has a Blog which makes interesting reading.

To access the blog click here

Is there anyone planning "to do" emails this term or in the near future or if you are desperate to have email partners let me know. I will match schools up with each other also I have a school from outside the area wanting to develop links so if you are interested let me know.

Mike Carter

Just a reminder that the meetings will take place at Heworth CLC tonight starting at 16.00 and at Gateshead CLC tomorrow again starting at 16.00 hope to see you at one of the meetings.

The ICT Team

Check out a new ictGateshead hosted weblog - INSEA. Travels and Teaching in South East Asia (Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam) as experienced by Katy Thompson and Joe Alexander.

This is a fascinating look at cultures widely different from our own. Katy and Joe have just begun teaching in Cambodia where in one school, the day starts with a visit from the ice-cream man! This is eye-opening stuff and worth a daily visit to learn more.

They need your help too. If you've got activity ideas they can use in the classroom then visit the site and use the Comments facility to share your expertise.

The site is updated regularly during the week with news, travelogues and some fab photos.

www.insea.co.uk

Friday 2nd February 2007 7.30am

Safeguarding our children is of paramount importance. Providing them with a safe environment in which to learn through technology is equally important, for many this involves access to digital resources.

Many children routinely access the Internet and mobile technology as part of their social life and are attracted to the latest applications to allow this.
Use the link below to download a document which lists a variety of Website links to help those who have a responsibility for keeping our young people safe.
Click Here Weblinks

We have moved over to a new Groupware Messaging Server. To find out more about the functionality - click here.

Donate your old Computers to Charity!

Computer Aid International offers a professional, free and environmentally friendly decommissioning service. They guarantee 100% WEEE compliance and will data wipe your hard drives using Blancco Data Wiping to government CESG standards. They will then refurbish your old PCs for reuse in schools, hospitals and community organisations in developing countries.
Please call Anja on 020 72810091 or email
anja@computeraid.org
or visit http://www.computeraid.org

It's a tad wet up here in the Far North - Autumnal indeed.

Hope you enjoy Steve's Session. I gather he's going to cover collaborative working using blogs/wikis/social networking/radio/podcasting. Exciting stuff. Maybe he'll get to comment on the conversational web...

Dug this out from BoingBoing...

Content isn't king. If I sent you to a desert island and gave you the choice of taking your friends or your movies, you'd choose your friends -- if you chose the movies, we'd call you a sociopath. Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about.

Why not start a conversation with us by using the Comments link below. Look forward to hearing from you.

Welcome to colleagues in the Deepest Southwest...from the Furthest North.

We hope you enjoy Steve's session. You can continue the conversation by using the Comments function below this posting. We look forward to hearing from you.

A new service offering - online photo albums for Gateshead schools hosted by us and not compromised by inappropriate material as experienced on external services.

If you'd like to set up Gallery space on our site please call us.
If you'd like a Gallery component for your school weblog, call us too.

Take a look at The Gallery in beta form here.

We are trialling our new weather station at Gateshead CLC. The site is unfinished as yet and we hope to be able to upload many different data sets and formats. If you would like an early peak, follow this link: -

1. Weather Station
2. Summary (Table Form)
3. Historical Data (Graphs)
4. Data from inside the Office
5. Todays Weather

We are now broadcasting our radio station via the Internet every day 24 hours a day.
We have recorded some content but we need much more. At present we have some book readings and stories read by children from a couple of our schools. We want everyone to be involved. The content can be readings or it could be a play that a class has performed.
We can come to your school and record your material or alternatively you can book time in the Gateshead CLC and bring the material with you. We will show you how to record, edit, mix and upload your work for all to hear. We are able to record music so if you are a budding musician and want world wide airplay contact us.

Click the link at the top of the page to enter the website and listen to Gateshead CLC Radio "Our Learner's Voice".

CLC Radio is an Internet based radio station broadcasting around the world.
The aim of this project is to provide a platform for Gateshead people to showcase talent and share in their learning.
We are planning to webcast interviews, news, stories and music that contribute to learning and culture in Gateshead.

We're in the testing phase of this service at the moment before moving to scheduled programs. You can listen to the test broadcast at http://www.ictgateshead.org/radio. These recordings are from http://www.peoplesound.com copyright free digital music and MP3 downloads from emerging artists and some initial recordings made at the CLC

If you would like to contribute content, such as a recording of the school band, pupils reading their favourite story, hold a discussion or an interview or have ideas for programming please email Steve Sanderson at s.sanderson@gateshead.org

There will be a meeting of the Content and Development Group in the ICT Centre in Dryden on the 20th May 2005 1.30 - 3.30.

Is there a place for web logs in the classroom? Read this article on the BBC News website which illustrates some of the ideas that are being applied in the field of education.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4194669.stm

This guide contains everything you need to run lessons on chat safety for 8-10 and 11-16 year olds, in two separate Teachers Packs. The lessons have been created by teachers and Internet safety experts.

View the Chat Safety website here.

Speaking at a DEMOS/OECD conference David Miliband, Minister for Schools, began by saying what personalised learning is not.

"Personalised learning is not a return to child-centred theories; it is not about separating pupils to learn on their own; it is not the abandonment of a national curriculum; and it is not a licence to let pupils coast at their own preferred pace of learning.

The rationale for personalised learning is clear: it is to raise standards by focusing teaching and learning on the aptitudes and interests of pupils. Personalised learning is the way in which our best schools tailor education to ensure that every pupil achieves the highest standard possible. Our drive is to make these best practices universal. In our view there are five key elements to doing so. "

Bill Gates rates blogging as the perfect medium between the impositions of email and the distance of a website.
In a speech to CEOs at Microsoft's CEO Summit, Redmond's Chief Software Architect detailed how blogging - essentially an online diary - solves the problem of either relying on your audience to check your website for new content proactively or relying on intrusive emails where you decide who would like to know about the new content.

Using an RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed, anyone interested in knowing when there is new content on a blog gets alerted and can decide whether or not to view it.

He even uses the technology to alert his own employees: 'If I do a trip report, say, and put that in a blog format, then all the employees at Microsoft who really want to look at that and who have keywords that connect to it or even people outside, they can find the information,' he said. And some 700 Microsoft employees keep their own blogs.

Businesses could make good use of such technology, as does Amazon, which offers an RSS feed so that customers can receive alerts when new products are available.

It would offer businesses a means of notifying interested parties of new products, special offers and so on without having to resort to mass-mailing or spam.

[PC Pro] 16:21

Just published by Oftsed.
ICT in schools: the impact of government initiatives 5 years on

Ofsted's inspection of the impact of government initiatives in information and communication technology (ICT) began in 1999. Reports were published in 2001 and 2002. This report, like the previous ones, draws evidence mainly from visits to schools, local education authorities (LEAs) and regional broadband consortia (RBCs). Other evidence comes from school and LEA inspections.

This from the Executive Summary...

"The positive impact of financial support from the Government has been noticeable mainly in staff confidence, record resource levels and improvements in pupils' ICT capabilities."

Despite the overall positive picture, the report found that the Government's aim that ICT should become embedded in the curriculum is still only a reality in a small number of schools. Pupils' ICT experiences across the curriculum are sporadic and teacher-dependent and in many schools opportunities to exploit the technology across all subjects are lost on a daily basis."

Link to Download Report

The Department for Education and Skills released "The Motivational Effect of ICT on Pupils" research report this week.

The EdTechUk weblog summarises the key findings:

* ICT use by pupils and teachers in the case study schools led to positive motivational outcomes, supporting a focus upon learning and the tackling of learning tasks.
* Positive motivational outcomes were most frequently found when ICT was used to support engagement, research, writing and editing, and presentation of work. Where ICT uses supported internal cognitive aspects of learning, for example in the case of secondary design and technology, there were indicators that the motivation arising from the use of ICT was linked to enhancements in some subject specific attainment.
* More positive motivation resulted when ICT use was focused on both teaching and learning, than when ICT was used to support teaching alone.
* Boys and girls were both motivated by uses of ICT. There was evidence that motivation from ICT use positively affected the work patterns of boys so that they worked in similar ways to the persistent pattern of girls.
* Motivation appeared to be independent of ethnic background, but socio-economic background impacted on occasions in terms of limited access or out of school support.
* There were indications that ICT impacted positively upon pupil behaviour inside school, and some impact on their behaviour outside school.

download the report here (PDF)

We have a 2 week trial access to this major online reference resource.

BOLSE comprises: Encyclop訶ia Britannica , Britannica Student Encyclopedia, Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia, Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, Britannica Internet Guide, Video & Media and Learning Materials.

If you'd like to look at BOLSE for evaluation purposes please call Peter Bolger on 433 8630 or email peter.bolger@gateshead.org

Preparation Session

Brain Robinson, who manages the TES Newspaper event, is running an introductory workshop in Dryden ICT Centre, on Tuesday 2nd March, at 4pm, for anyone who is interested in taking part or finding out about Newspaper day.

A new international website for schools: the Global Gateway, was launched earlier this week by Charles Clarke.

The Global Gateway is a new website providing swift and easy access to information on making educational links with other countries. It explains how to forge educational partnerships and functions as a "partner linking agency"enabling schools in any country to register and link up with schools abroad. In other words, it is designed as a "One-Stop Shop" for international school partnerships. These can take the form of internet links, joint curriculum activity, projects for the professional development of teachers and school leaders, exchanges of students and teachers, or any other collaborative opportunities.

"Young people at school today live in a multicultural society and it is important that we encourage an understanding of the cultural and economic
differences across the globe. For these reasons, I want to encourage the
development of an international dimension into the work of every school. I
urge you to access the Global Gateway, make use of the information there and
register to find a partner school abroad.

I have sent an email to all schools in England today to urge them to access
the Global Gateway, make use of the information there and register to find a
partner school abroad. I hope LEAs will also use the website and support
their schools in developing an international dimension."

Charles Clarke, Secretary of State for Education and Skills

http://www.globalgateway.org.uk

Becta are preparing a publication and online materials to showcase activities using ICT to celebrate cultural diversity in a European and global context, and would appreciate the help in identifying examples.

They are looking for examples in schools, that show how ICT is being harnessed for communication between cultural groups and encouraging organisations working with young people to communicate their experiences. The aim is to 'badge' activities, include some in a publication and publicise them on both Becta's and the EU Netdays sites (www.netdayseurope.org).

Contributions should exemplify the use of ICT to improve understanding between cultural groups whether in the UK or abroad. They might, for example, use digital video to link young people speaking different languages or from different cultural backgrounds, or celebrate different types of cultural expression like music, theatre or film.

To register projects or activities, please complete the registration form online at http://www.becta.org.uk/netdays Contributions should be sent by 1st March 2004

Gateshead Interactive Guidance Website for 16 year olds
Heworth Grange City Learning Centre
Thursday 26th February 2004: 16.30-18.00

Logic@16 is a dynamic website offering an up to date course search facility which is Gateshead specific with guidance, information and news aimed at young people. The site will be launched by Maggie Atkinson, Group Director Learning and Culture and Director of Education.

For further information please contact: Henry Edwards on 0191 433 8621 or email henryedwards@gateshead.gov.uk

www.logicat16.co.uk (goes live 26.02.04)

If you're into our local traditional music heritage then FARNE, an online resource produced by Gateshead Libraries, The Sage Gateshead and Newcastle University is a must-visit. FARNE provides access almost 4,000 songs, tunes, sound recordings and photographs from across North East England, bringing the musical heritage of the region alive.

Go to 'Learn' for beginners' guides to the music, instruments and dance traditions of the region... or to Radio FARNE for full length interviews and concerts. Whatever your tastes, explore and enjoy!

www.folknortheast.com

We have purchased an LEA licence for TUNED IN, an outstanding online music resource for key stages 1,2 and 3. This is available in the form of content, so it does not need to be installed on your network, and it can be accessed at http://www.tuned-in.org The user name and password are the same, ggfl and ggfl (as in Gateahead Grid for Learning).

A teacher evaluation of Tuned In appeared in the Guardian and can be found at http://www.learnevaluations.co.uk/EvalResults.aspx?PID=32