MANAGING ICT MANAGING ICT
Teacher José
Picardo
discusses what
Ask what the
the many and
varied applications on the
internet can bring to your
internet can
classroom
VERYONE AGREES that using ICT
E
effectively offers our pupils huge
benefits in terms of raising engagement
and achievement. But the widely
do for you
encompassing term ICT does not only
refer to spreadsheets, PowerPoints,
maths graphs, or Photoshop, its scope
is much wider than that.
I would like to draw your attention to the “C” in ICT. threatening to teachers. After all, we prefer to stay in colleagues and students. But what makes Diigo different One of the most useful aspects of this service is
Indeed, communication is perhaps the reason why most control and we do not like our students being one step from other social bookmarking sites is that you can that, as the homework is always set online, the students
people use computers. Most of us regularly check our ahead of us, and we fear that we would not be able to highlight sections of text and even make annotations do not have the responsibility to make a note in their
email, quite a few of us have a Facebook or Twitter control them online – in their territory, as it were. directly onto the website in question. diaries, but they are responsible for actually doing it.
account, and an increasing number of us is turning to I would argue that there is a basic misconception So, say you have found a very useful site for Excuses such as “I don’t know what the homework
the internet as our main source of information. here: although our pupils enjoy a certain familiarity revising To Kill A Mockingbird, not only can you share was” simply will not wash with Edmodo!
The internet has undergone a revolution in terms of with the web applications and services borne out the fact that you have found it with selected people, These are just two out of the hundreds of tools the
the services and possibilities it offers. It is no longer a of hundreds of hours gaming or online, they do not but you can also annotate this website and highlight internet has to offer. Both are free and are safe and
static repository of information, in which information innately know how to use new tools. We would have to important sections directly on the page. You can then especially designed for use in an educational context, so
flowed one way from the source to the recipient. become familiar with these tools and applications first share these annotations with those you select by simply there should be no issues regarding blocking or filtering
Information nowadays flows both ways, as more and and then teach our students how to use them. emailing them. by system administrators. Both have the flexibility to
more websites, such as blogs, wikis, social networking This presents us with the next hurdle: why would a This, of course, works the other way round too. be used by the whole school, individual departments,
and bookmarking sites or video-sharing websites teacher go out of his or her way to learn how to use all Students can annotate webpages and send the link or just by you, breathing a little innovation into your
encourage, indeed rely on, two-way communication these newfangled websites and services? Well, it helps to you so that you can assess their progress. Diigo practice as you go along.
and the creation and sharing of content. that these online tools are designed to be intuitive and works wonderfully to promote independent study and You can surmise by now that I have found these
This content creation and sharing is what is often easy to use, as long as you are familiar with some basic encourage informal learning, as pupils can access the tools incredibly useful, but what about the pupils? Well,
referred to as Web 2.0. But what we call Web 2.0 is just concepts such as uploading or downloading. material you provide both at school and outside. my pupils tell me off if I forget to put homework on
the web to our pupils – they do not know any different. However, the crux of the matter is that some of As my school does not yet have a virtual learning Edmodo. They remind me to send them annotated links
They have grown up with the likes of Facebook, Bebo these web applications are actually rather useful to environment in place, Edmodo, the second of our using Diigo. Do pupils like working in this way? They
and YouTube and all this communicating, sharing and both teachers and students, in that they would certainly examples, has come to the rescue by providing a love it! SecEd
creating is just what the web is. improve teaching and learning. way for teachers and students to share notes, links,
So, given our pupils’ familiarity with the internet, Take Diigo as our first example – a social and documents. Edmodo is a private communication • José Picardo is head of modern foreign languages at
the question facing us teachers is: why don’t we make bookmarking site, Diigo allows you to bookmark platform built for teachers and pupils in which teachers Nottingham High School.
the most of the resources and opportunities the web websites that you come across on the internet and deem have the ability to send alerts, events, and assignments
has to offer to enhance our teaching and the learning useful and worth remembering. As Diigo stores this to students, and they in turn can get in touch with the
Further information
of our pupils? information online, these bookmarks can be accessed teacher to ask for help, they can communicate with other • www.diigo.com
Perhaps what is familiar to our students feels from anywhere and you can share them with your students and they can also hand in assignments online. • www.edmodo.com
Organised by
3rd national conference
SCHOOL AND PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING
Listening, hearing and delivering: developing services
to meet the needs of children, young people and their families
The Centennial Centre, Birmingham 6th & 7th October 2009
Objectives
• To provide school and public health nurses and
• To stimulate discussion about the way forward for
partner agencies with an update on some of the
school nursing and integrated services
challenges and opportunities facing the specialty
• Through personal examples, case studies and
• To provide a relevant and attractive learning
informal discussion, to improve and enhance
environment for knowledge and creative thinking that
performance and practice
will benefit future development
CONFERENCE FEE INCLUDES ENTRANCE TO THE CONFERENCE, LUNCH AND REFRESHMENTS AND FULL CONFERENCE DOCUMENTATION
MA Healthcare Ltd, St. Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB
For further information and a booking form, please contact
Tel: 020 7501 6762 Fax: 020 7733 8174 Email: laura.d@markallengroup.com
MAH BJSN09 190x130.indd 1 21/8/09 12:41:47
10 SecEd • September 10 2009
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