Gateshead CLC - ictGateshead

We're off dahn sarff next month to the BBC Television Centre to pick up an award as a winning Delivery Partner for the recent BBC School Report Day. We understand that the judges were impressed with the range of opportunities we offered to our participating schools and by our interactive and multimedia project website.

Whilst it's nice to pick up gongs, we're more delighted to know that our participating schools had a great day, picking up new skills and information. We're looking forward to next year.

We're featured as a Case Study on the Movable Type website...Click the link below to find out how we've been using MT in education.

Check out the buzz

BBC School Report Day was manic throughout but judging from the comments from the students who survived it, a great success!

We're finalising the site with content from the day - you'll get a good idea of what was going on by having a good shufty around...

www.ictgateshead.org/schoolreport

Welcome to Gateshead City Learning Centre.
You can catch up on our School Report Day news by following our School Report website, subscribing to our RSS newsfeed and by listening to our web radio broadcasts at 11.00, 13.00 and 15.00.
Schools taking part today are: Dryden School, Thomas Hepburn School and Whickham School.

ictGateshead School Report Website

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

We're busy creating some sound files for our web radio station. We come back again to the musictastic experience that is Sony Acid....There's just so much to be had from this impressive looping app, not least the free sound loops and fx.

Here's a sample intro we've been playing with for the past 30 mins

Tons of coverage in the local press with nice piccies. Glynwood organised a website launch for parents and invited some VIPs. Great event and very well attended.

www.glynwoodprimary.org

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!

My feet are still aching though after the 2 day march through Olympia. I need to discover an ant-jostle device....a pet wolf should do it.

Still, lots to see including some eye-candy furniture and space design from Isis, Mimio's portable IWB systems, a raft of podcasting "solutions" including Podium, the frankly wow-factor Reactable project from FutureLab and new initiatives from the likes of ESP, creators of ComposeWorld and RhythmMaker.

Nice to see some Library/Archive resources and services being promoted. Top of the heap = 24 Hour Museum, and MICHAEL search of free online resources from museums, libraries and archives.

Check out too the new offering from English Heritage, Heritage Explorer

We've rang out the old and rung in the new for 2008 and we're looking forward to working with you all again in the new term. First week back though we'll be at the BETT Show in London checking out what's hot and what's freeeeeeeeeeezing in the world of educational ICT. We'll be asking questions about GIS and handheld learning in particular. If you're going down for the event, let us know and we can meet up for a hideously over-priced cup of coffee....

Our web servers are being relocated by our ISP on Thursday December 27th. There will be some interruption to service with a period of downtime for all of our websites. We apologise for any inconvenience.

This morning we welcome Year 3 and 4 from St Mary's Whickham to the CLC. The children will be performing their Christmas Assembly and we'll be recording and filming it for broadcast from the school website before the weekend. You might need dictionaries...the Assembly is partly delivered in French. Tres Bien!

visit the St Mary's school website

We're about to get the toolbox out to construct a French weblog for our friends at Windy Nook.
More details to follow, but expect adventures in podcasting and vodcasting....

Derek the Dalek was in jocular mood on Day One of his return to The Office.

In the presence of The Master (Moira) and various alien species (Mike and Trevor), Derek announced his plans to subjugate The Creche by sending them on a Dreamweaver course. The crazed master-criminal behind the kidnapping is believed to be appearing soon in pantomime locally... for which Derek has tickets. (Oh no he hasn't - ed).

Derek is spending the weekend quietly with his friends, The Cult of Skaro. Flowers, chocolates and Fig Rolls can be sent to him c/o Peter at the usual address.

An email from the kidnappers (currently being traced) suggests that Derek will be released from captivity later today. The message reveals that Derek has been brainwashed by a sect of tree-hugging neo-hippies intent on turning the planet saffron. Apparently, Derek will now pronounce love and peace and will promote the music of James Blunt and Enya as a global panacea.

On release, Derek will be offered trauma counselling and a refresher course on "Global Domination The Dalek Way".

Derek the Dalek....cuddly, really,

Sadly, we have to report the kidnapping of Derek, our office Dalek.

A local officer of the Judoon, attending the scene at Unit 6, concluded from the barely literate ransom notes that the snatch was committed by a human, probably a female, driven temporarily insane through stuffing thousands of leaflets into envelopes. She may have been assisted in the crime by disaffected members of The Creche, a sinister organisation of alleged web designers and administration workers.

Derek is thirty three and a third and a much-loved member of a superior species. His hobbies include; seeking, locating and exterminating, the colonisation of other planets, performing emergency temporal shifts and the taunting of envelope stuffers. He is of course much misunderstood and he works endlessly for world domination (surely, you mean peace? - ed)

A reward (virtual) is offered for information leading to the safe return of Derek.

Please contact: The Cult of Skaro, c/o Gateshead City Learning Centre. who will be pleased to scan your brain waves for useful data.

Feel free to download a colour copy of our Christmas Craft Fair Leaflet....
If you'd like multiple copies to publicise the event locally please email us and we'll get a pile out to you...

Download Flyer (PDF: 208KB)

Students from Whickham School studying ICT visited the CLC today for a one-day session on Dreamweaver. The students learned how to create a basic, multipage website with text, images and hyperlinks. They also discussed elements of web design and good practice.

We've just added new audio content to the Westall's War website.

Recently, we were approached by a local media student Neil Reynolds, mastering in radio production, who kindly offered us access to a radio documentary he was producing on Robert Westall. Westall was the locally born author of the award-winning The Machine Gunners.

The documentary, Westall's Garmouth is now available on the above site for download as a podcast. It is an excellent piece of work and well worth a listen.

On Friday 19th October, teams from four Gateshead Primary schools took part in the grand final of a Lego Robotics Competition at Heworth Grange City Learning Centre. Under their team names “Rampaging Penguins” (Bill Quay), “Dunston Divas” (Dunston Hill), “Roman Bots” (Roman Road) and “The Geordies” (Glynwood), pupils designed programs to control robots through a series of challenging tasks. The competition had a soccer theme and robots had to weave in and out of defenders, beat the defence and score goals.

All teams performed well on the day. When scores were totalled up it was Roman Road school who emerged as winners. Dean, Lauren, Nathan and Caitlin picked up the top prize, a Logo Nxt Robotics kit while runners up were awarded Robosapiens Robots. All pupils received a gigabyte memory pen as a reward for their hard work.

This week we're down in London to present at and participate as a practitioner at the Handheld Learning 2007 Conference: October 10-12th 2007.

We'll be there with our strategic partners Maad Ltd and we'll have something nifty and new to introduce...more of which, later this week.

Come and chat with us....

Supery-doopery Christmas Craft Fair chock-a-block with goodies for you to buy: jewellery, woodcrafts, ethnic objets, textiles....with over 25 stallholders attending.
A must for your diary!

Saturday December 1st and Sunday December 2nd 2007
9.30am - 4.00pm
Gateshead City Learning Centre
Free Entry - Free Parking

Call 0191 460 2900 for more information.
Traders - please call for table rates and availability.

www.ictgateshead.org/craft

We're now offering local schools half day or full day sessions aimed at creating new content for the CLC webradio station. We're looking for 20-30 minute pieces which combine talk/music/jingles. These contributions could be school documentaries, poetry/story readings, school music, drama, MFL....We help you with the technical ins-and-outs....You get your hands on professional radio kit and software. Fun!
Please contact Mike Carter/Peter Bolger on 0191 460 2900

We've just finished a major revamp of Tyne and Wear Archive Service's popular Westall's War website. If you haven't visited before please do pop over and read about the worst air raid disaster in North East England during WWII. 107 people were killed by a direct hit on the shelter in Wilkinson's Lemonade Factory in North Shields.

www.westallswar.org

We're in bright (well grey and damp actually) and early for the finishing touches....We hope you have a useful and enjoyable day at Gateshead CLC. The original conference programme has changed - please pick up the latest map of the day from Registration.

Remember...log on to www.you-say.org and click Comment to have your say!

The ictGateshead Conference (July 12th) is split site. The venue buildings are within 150m of each other.

ARRIVAL and PARKING
Registration and breakfast is at STAITHES UNIT 1
[Enter Watermark - turn left at roundabout - pass TyneTees TV - take first right into Staithes - Unit 1 is at the end. Please park in the spaces next to Units 1 and 2 and any unoccupied unit. Do NOT park in front of occupied units]. Overflow parking can be found in front of the main CLC building, Keel Row Unit 13. Please Note: Parking spaces are assigned and badged - please do not use spaces assigned to other businesses.

KEY NOTES and SEMINARS
These take place in 4 locations.
a) UNIT 2 STAITHES (adjacent to where you register)
b) UNIT 13 KEEL ROW - MAIN CLC BUILDING (diagonally opposite to Unit 1)
c) UNIT 6 KEEL ROW - CLC ADMIN BUILDING
d) UNIT 3 KEEL ROW

To access Units 13, 6 and 3 on Keel Row, please take the temporary path from Staithes.

You can get a map to Gateshead City Learning Centre here.

Best to book your place now rather than just turning up on the day...places are going fast on several of the seminars. Call us on 0191 460 2900.

If you're coming to the ictGateshead Conference on Thursday July 12 (and if not why not)...you might like to mosey over to www.you-say.org. This is the blog for the conference. You can contribute before, during and after the event by clicking Comments. Why not join the various conversations that'll be springing up....you can share your ideas, questions and opinions.

Thinking about coming to our ICT Conference next week?

Why not download the Conference Programme - there's some great stuff on the menu{PDF:800KB]

Further info on each seminar and speaker to follow.

We have two key note speakers at this year's ICT Conference being held at the CLC on July 12th.

Opening the event will be David Hilton, Secondary Strategy Regional Director.

After lunch, Josie Fraser, Educational Technologist, will be talking about e-safety in the context of the changes brought about by Web 2.0, with a look at the cyberbullying advice & guidance she is working on for DfES.

We're now taking bookings for our ictGateshead Conference on 12th July 2007 at Gateshead City Learning Centre.

Please call 0191 460 2900 to reserve your place or email jbrookes@ictgateshead.org

Places are limited and workshop numbers are restricted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Information
This year's ICT conference is an exciting combination of workshops and National Keynote speakers. Once again we have tried to provide a range of seminars related to using ICT in the classroom and we're particularly pleased to have many Gateshead teachers running sessions.

The conference is aimed at Primary and Secondary phases with information and activities for Headteachers, Senior Managers and Class Teachers.

There are lots of exciting sessions to look forward to including weblogging, web radio, Soundbeam, mobile learning and CADCAM to name a few. Whatever your interest or ICT needs there should be plenty during the day to whet your appetite and provide you with ideas for back in school.

There will be a choice of 12 Workshops covering various aspects of ICT across the curriculum. There will also be a small exhibition of ICT resources.

I hope that you or someone from your school will be able to attend.

Moira Thompson

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME DOWNLOAD (PDF:800KB)

Just a little note with the web stats from our Whickham Web Wanderers website - if you haven't visited before get yourselves over there now for a content/comment rich website....

March 2007-June 2007
Hits: 2,103,276
Pages accessed: 170,445
Visits: 64,127

We've had some recent downtime with our Radio site and so we've taken the opportunity for a full redesign...Tune in to www.ictgateshead.org/radio

We've been running our web-based radio station for several years now and we're powering up in response to increasing demand from our schools.

We've invested in professional standard hardware/software from psquared and over the summer we'll be revamping our scheduled broadcasting and the webradio site itself.

Why not book a half-day or whole-day web radio session for your class here at the CLC? Full details on www.ictgateshead.org/radio

There be new crew mateys joining the Sweaty Sock this week.

Aye, lubbers from Barley Mow Primary School will be hearing ye adventures of Colin The Cabin Boy and adding their own names to the crew weblog...oh and getting on Pirate radio and tv too.

Check out what they get up to on www.walktheplank.org.uk

Book your Pirate Theme Session by calling Gateshead CLC on 0191 460 2900

The Mayor of Gateshead, Councillor Maureen Goldsworthy

Whickham Web Wanderers are pleased to announce that their new website, designed and hosted by ictGateshead will be officially launched by The Worshipful The Mayor of Gateshead. Councillor Maureen Goldsworthy at:
Gateshead City Learning Centre
Monday March 19th at 6.30pm

Those attending will be able to surf the website, browse displays and contribute new content to the website. Our friends from Arena North and Sight and Sound will also be in attendance to conduct audio/video interviews for willing participants who have interesting stories to tell.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Telephone: Peter Bolger 0191 460 2900 for further information.

All of our websites have newsfeeds - we'd like you to subscribe to your favourites and keep up to date with what we do. Here's how......

Click To Play

Thanks to Commoncraft for allowing the code sharing.

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!

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

We've been chatting with Kevin Hamel author of Tuned-in who's busy creating new units on the site featuring loop music made with Sony Acid Xpress. Acid is an awesome piece of software and the lite version (Xpress) is available for free download on the Sony site. Acid allows you to create multi track looped music using downloadable samples. Just mix and match, export to mp3 and use as backings for podcasts and videos...Enjoy!

Remember, tuned-in is available to all Gateshead schools - call us for access information.

Just a quick heads-up on our latest trial of Elgg as a potential social networking option for Gateshead teachers/schools. Regular readers may recall we played with this some 18 months ago - now we're looking at Elgg Spaces, a hosted option for the application. It's looking interesting - especially if the touted Forum module is introduced. More on this later.

Elgg Spaces website

The latest podcast from ExploreMusic at The Sage Gateshead hosted by ictGateshead Radio

"ExploreMusic: David Keenan Talk - "Both Sides = Now: the Aesthetics of Free Folk"

Listen to Podcast

Arrrrrr, it be Pirate Day at the CLC on January 16th. We're being visited by 120 of the scurviest young pirates from Gateshead schools. We'll be blogging, podcasting and making Pirate TV aboard the good ship Sweaty Sock....There'll be no slacking with Sealegs Ethel at the helm!

Find out more by visiting our site: Walk the Plank.

walktheplank.org.uk

....a very Happy Christmas and enjoyable festive season.

We look forward to working with you again in the New Year.

Well, its the final week before Christmas and a busy time here at the CLC, we've had courses and meetings running all week from a range of clientèle. While the staff here at the centre went from the being the trainer to the trainee, when we were shown how to use our new video camera equipment, complete with chroma key capabilities. This will allow us to use 'blue-screen' technology to place the actor on any image background...

Work also continues on the many school weblogs listed in our blogorama, for both existing schools and new requests for work, which we receive on a weekly basis. We also continue to upgrade, update and install new and exciting packages to make use of around the centre.

Christmas lunch was also well enjoyed by all this week, as will be the staff night out!

ExploreMusic's exposed: theme for November and December is Brass and it's
been a hectic and funfilled brass experience so far.

Every weekend children have been taking part in the Big Brass Adventure - a free family trail around The Sage Gateshead - this continues until the end of December and you can just turn up to join in.

The podcast gives you a flavour of what ExploreMusic have been up to so far with interviews, brass band performances, talks and more, recorded on the weekend of the Brass In Concert Championships 2006.

A photo gallery is also now available on the ExploreMusic website www.gateshead.gov.uk/exploremusic


Download exposed-brass here [29.3MB - 15m 59s]

Go to ictGateshead Radio podcast section

Yes...a smorgasbord of content from ictGateshead hosted weblogs, gathered, cunningly, into one place. If you will, a first port of call overview of what's happening in ictGateshead blogland. Enjoy!

Visit our Blogorama section

We are delighted to bring you the second of ExploreMusic’s two exposed:pipes podcasts. This particular broadcast gives a flavour of the wide range of activities which happened throughout the two months.

You’ll hear excerpts of the free concourse performances, discussions with pipe maker Colin Ross at his demonstration and with Julia Say from the Northumbrian Pipers Society, plus some questions and answers at the beginner workshops with Anthony Robb.

The podcast draws to a close with a recording of some work by GCSE and A level students from Whitley Bay High School. Sessions, led by composer and animateur Stephen Deazley, looked at the rhythms and melodies in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Kettletoft Inn score for pipes and orchestra, and students then created their own pieces based on their observations.

We’ll be bringing you more podcasts of exposed:brass in December, plus some exclusive interviews with artists as part of our exposed: series in January and February which looks at singers and song writing. For more on any of the upcoming exposed: series visit www.gateshead.gov.uk/exploremusic

Get the Podcast
Go to the Podcast Section of ictGateshead Radio and simply subscribe to our newsfeed - using your favourite newsreader application. Or just add the url to the podcasts section of iTunes (or similar) and update.

Pre-concert talk with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Anthony Sargent

ictGateshead are pleased to host ExploreMusic's exposed podcast series.

Here is ExploreMusic's first podcast, available to download for free!

As part of the exposed: series, this is the first instalment of our two
podcasts based around pipes, which was our exposed theme in September and October.

This pre-concert talk was recorded before the premiere of Sir Peter
Maxwell Davies' 'Kettletoft Inn', a new commission written for Northumbrian
Piper Kathryn Tickell and the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra.

Anthony Sargent, General Director of The Sage Gateshead, talks with Maxwell Davies about his life, his development as a composer, his music and this inspirational new piece.

Look out for the second podcast coming very soon, which has music from our packed pipes day and interviews with people who enjoyed it, as well as the piece composed by music students from Whitley Bay High School, based on 'Kettletoft Inn' and performed live by the musicians who composed it.

For more information about the exposed: series, or about Sir Peter Maxwell
Davies, please visit the ExploreMusic website:
www.gateshead.gov.uk/exploremusic and click on exposed: in the main menu.

Get the Podcast
Go to the Podcast Section of ictGateshead Radio and simply subscribe to our newsfeed - using your favourite newsreader application. Or just add the url to the podcasts section of iTunes (or similar) and update.

Enjoy!

We're pleased to announce the launch of a new website developed by Gateshead CLC and Maad on behalf of Tyne and Wear Archives Service.

Lice Hunter is an exploration of the work of Captain Peacock, a Newcastle born doctor whose task in World War I was to investigate/eradicate the problem of lice infestation amongst the soldiers in the trenches.

Hmm...tasty stuff, creepy crawlies...
Take a look and find out more about this yukky job.
The site has Flash based talking head content and a fab "Find the Lice" game.
Enjoy!

Visit Lice Hunter

NCBF06 kicks off in schools and libraries across the region from November 6th culminating in a fun day for all the family Gala Day in Hartlepool on Saturday November 18th.

Full information on the GGfL hosted NCBF website

Congratulations to Oakfield Juniors who unleash their new school weblog upon an audience of parents this evening. Well done to Julie Clark and her colleagues for trail-blazing and getting the beast built.

visit the Oakfield Junior weblog (temp web address)

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.

From 55 degrees North to 5 degrees South...

...From Gateshead to the Indian Ocean.

We will be following Johanna Smith on her diving expedition around the islands of the Seychelles. She will be diving amongst the marine life to carry out a conservation and research study. Not only that, she'll be blogging her experiences and thoughts.

On the new 5 Degrees weblog, Johanna will be able to tell us what she's been up to down at the bottom of the ocean and what kind of things she'll be doing next.

Check it out here at ictGateshead.org/5degrees

Specialist Schools Trust

Thanks to all those who attended the "Engaging the Community through New Technologies" workshop at Leeds Marriott. Please use the link below to download the presentation.

Download file powerpoint here

We were at Fellside Community Primary School yesterday morning for the launch of the school's new blog site. Blaydon MP Dave Anderson attended morning assembly, answered questions from the children and formally launched the website.

If your school wants to blog with us...get in touch: 0191 460 2900

It's been a hectic week so far with CLC Units 13 and 6 seeing a steady stream of classes and visitors. We've been out and about too: to Gateshead Carer's Association to look at blogging and community website solutions for their activities, to Oakfield Junior and Wardley Primary schools for staff training (blogs). We're finalising a new school website for Fellside Community Primary School complete with podcasts created by the children. Back at the office we're exploring new chat/messageboard facilities, relocating many of our blog sites to new server spaces and pondering mad schemes like this :-) Further reports from the front-line to follow...meantime, I'm checking out how to do this.

You can find the cassette image generator here.

Autumn Term 2006

Courses are listed by 15 subject sectors:
Using Computers l Arts and Crafts l Cookery l Fitness l Computer Art l Community l Textiles l Family Learning l Counselling l Languages l History l Skills for Life l Business l Performing Arts l Complementary Therapies

Download Prospectus (PDF: 1.6MB)

Are you into local history? Are you a bit of an expert on where you live?
Have you got time to help us build a new online perspective of Gateshead?
Historical, cultural, sporting, social, industrial....

We're about to launch wikiGateshead and we need volunteers to help get it off the ground.
If you'd like to learn more - give us a call on 0191 460 2900 or email peter.bolger@gateshead.org

Gateshead Council, in partnership with Connexions and the Children’s Fund, has recently become a Beacon Council for "Positive Youth Engagement in the community and democratic process". The council is one of only eight in the country to receive Beacon status and will hold the award until June 2007.

ourgateshead.org - is the Beacon weblog, to be developed by young people in Gateshead. The site has been designed by and is hosted by GGfL. The aim is to produce a multimedia recod of the Beacon year and to encourage widespread participation. The blog's reporting team will be training throught the summer and the site will go live in time for the new school year.

Throughout the Beacon year the council hopes to further develop opportunities to engage young people and offer a series of learning activities such as open days, seminars, mini visits and presentations.

see ourgateshead.org

Launching soon, a new weblog to record a Gateshead adult learner group's visit to Barcelona.
You can take a sneak preview here...

Notes from the workshop @ the Deputy Headteacher and Assistant Headteacher conference.

Download file

June 22-23: Gateshead CLC is hosting the Virtual Vision conference. VV brings together local teachers with local artists from a range of backgrounds and asks them to collaborate on the theme of creative learning/teaching/environments.

Their deliberations/suggestions/creativity can be found on the Virtual Vision Gateshead weblog

Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
New Horizons for Community Engagement - The Third National Community Conference
21 - 22 June 2006, Manchester

We've been invited to lead workshops at this event - we'll be talking about...
Engaging the Community Through New Technologies (2.00pm - 3.00pm and 3.30pm - 4.30pm)

If you're going to be there, say hello in advance via the Comments link below.
Or if you were there and you'd like to continue the conversation...

We look forward to meeting you.