The Learning Pod

On-line applications are coming along nicely and often have features as good as there desktop cousins. I review some of these applications that I have used myself or in the classromm with my students. Every application I review is FREE to use. Go to www.conxxion.com for help in the classroom (notes and lessons) The online application I reviewed are: Imagination Cubed http://www.imaginationcubed.com Gliffy http://www.gliffy.com/ Snipshot http://snipshot.com/ ThinkFree http://www.thinkfree.com gOFFICE http://goffice.com Thumbstacks http://www.thumbstacks.com/index.php Google spreadsheet http://docs.google.com/ Google docs http://docs.google.com/ Ajax13 http://us.ajax13.com MediaMax http://www.mediamax.com/

Once again the government spend millions on an ICT project, thousands of people devote countless hours to running the project, staff in schools project manage the situation and.... the government decides to drop the project!

You will need to use software to help design your ICT system. Software is an important part of any ICT system and you will need to describe the software you will use. It is also important to describe, compare and contrast other software that could have been used to do the job as well. The audio notes talk you through what you need to know. Templates that you can fill-in to help with the task can be found at www.conxxion.com. If you have any ideas or suggestions for improvements, or just want to send a comment, please send me an email or leave a comment. via this web site/ www.conxxion.com

A look at this weeks news from the education and technology pages and some great freeware and opensource software - 05 Feb 2006. Show #14 Mozbackup: http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ Portable Apps Suite: http://portableapps.com/suite Girls 'put off technology jobs': http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4421712.stm Games to be tested in classrooms: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4134530.stm Ofsted tells on school teachers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4629092.stm

www.conxxion.com A selection of some great software that has been useful at home and in the classrom. If you have used any software that has enhanced your teaching and learning please let me know and we can let all our listeners know. Digital Movie Creator http://www.playdigitalblue.com/products/dmc/info/ Mozilla Firefox (web browser) http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ Mozilla Thunderbird (e-mail client) http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/ IKEA office planner (American version) http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/rooms_ideas/office/download1.html IKEA office planner (UK version) http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/rooms_ideas/office/office_planner.html IKEA kitchen planner http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/rooms_ideas/kitchen/download.html VOIP (Internet telephone calls) http://www.skype.com/ http://www.gizmoproject.com/ Picasa picture organizer and editor http://picasa.google.com/ Google Earth http://earth.google.com/

These notes give you guidance on how to write-up your project coursework as you go along. These particular notes relate to testing your system. The show links to the conxxion.com website where you can find more resources to help you with your GCSE ICT project. Please send me any feedback and let me know if the show and conxxion.com website helped you in any way. If you have any ideas or suggestions for improvements please send me an email or leave a comment. www.conxxion.com

A look at a few events that have caught my eye this week including 'the respect agenda', some ideas from BETT, and a science website that asks and ANSWERS those annoying and often slightly rude questions. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4598130.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4608942.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4599642.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4605418.stm http://www.ratlab.co.uk/

A look at a few events that have caught my eye this week including a typing error from the department of education that cost the taxpayer £23,000, literature by txt messages, Tesco blasts out the email (is this spam?), Sony gets into more bother, schools dishing out the cash to students for passing exams.

These notes give you guidance on how to provide evidence and examples of output from your system or sub-system. The show links to the conxxion.com website where you can find more resources to help you with your GCSE ICT project. Please send me any feedback and let me know if the show and conxxion.com website helped you in any way. If you have any ideas or suggestions for improvements please send me an email or leave a comment. www.conxxion.com

These notes give you guidance on how to provide evidence of output from your system. The show links to the conxxion.com website where you can find more resources to help you with your GCSE ICT project. Please send me any feedback and let me know if the show and conxxion.com website helped you in any way. If you have any ideas or suggestions for improvements please send me an email or leave a comment. www.conxxion.com

These notes give you guidance on how to write-up about your system as you go along. The show links to the conxxion.com website where you can find more resources to help you with your GCSE ICT project. Please send me any feedback and let me know if the show and conxxion.com website helped you in any way. If you have any ideas or suggestions for improvements please send me an email or leave a comment. www.conxxion.com

Making sure that you design a system that the user needs is essential. The show provides notes, help and advice on how to ensure this happens. The show has links to the conxxion.com website where you can find more resources to help you with your ICT project. Please send me any feedback and let me know if the show and conxxion.com website helped you in any way. If you have any ideas or suggestions for improvements please send me an email or leave a comment. www.conxxion.com

Help and advice on how to start-off your ICT project and provide a convincing introduction. This show links to the conxxion.com website where further resources can be found. www.conxxion.com

Some hints and tips to help students use powerpoint presentation software to design an Interactive Patient Information System (Basic First Aid) for their GCSE ICT project. Particular emphasis is given to use of the Master Slide and the design of a consistant user interface. www.conxxion.com

Student guidance on writing up about the data input, data processing, data output and data storage of a n ICT system. Relates to documents and guidance provided at conxxion.com support web site: www.conxxion.com

A couple of news items that caught my attention this week!

National Curriculum Levels