Ideas, Practices & Personal Insights

The best free tools for integrating technology in your classroom this academic year

Many of you will be looking to integrate more technology in your classroom this new academic year, but unsure at what software and apps to actually go for. Here is a list of Mark Anderson's top free edtech tools for assessment, recording and sharing video and audio, creating posters and presenting learning. E-learning or using technology to support learning comes in many different shapes and sizes. I’m always being ...

Google Analytics for schools - how to use 3 popular tools

In our first article on Google Analytics we looked at the basics of analytics; how do users find your web site, what pages are your users looking at and how do they interact with that content. The next natural step is to look at the data in a little more detail and use some of the slightly more advanced features to influence the structure of your site and its content ...

Top 5 tips to running a successful school Christmas card project

If your School PTA has not yet run an annual Christmas card printing project then you may be missing out on a fantastic fundraising opportunity. School Christmas card projects allow children to design Christmas cards on pieces of paper and have these cards turned into professional quality pieces. The PTA then sells these packs of personalised Christmas cards to the students' parents. It’s a lovely way for children to ...

How to provide meaningful careers advice for your students this term

Helping your students choose a career can be a complicated and confusing process. The worlds of education and employment are changing so fast, many teachers can be overwhelmed by the opportunities available to their students and some prefer to stick to “what they know”. Independent research from the Association of Colleges published in 2012 gave a clear indication of the problems facing teachers when trying to assist in this area: 82% of ...

Is the grading system the biggest barrier to students' improvement?

In order to test the hypothesis that omitting a grade when marking a student's work will ensure he or she pays more attention to comments and suggestions, Jon Tait conducts an experiment with his class and notices quite a distinct change in atmosphere when their homework is received. For some time now I have been toying with the idea that grading student work might just be one of the biggest ...

Are too many wall charts and posters undermining our focus on digital learning?

In order to be consistent with digital learning, teacher and technology enthusiast Rebecca Spink argues that keeping traditional forms of visual displays such as posters is contradictory. For those concerned with storing charts on a computer for no one to see, however, the solution may lie in 'Google Sites', an online collaborative platform with more to it than meets the eye. It has become quite a running joke with my ...

Back to school with Google Docs

As arguably the most collaborative online tool for students, Google Docs facilitates students in research, writing, sharing and commenting. In her first appearance as an expert blogger for our website, educator and experienced tech teacher Susan Oxnevad guides us through its most important features and how to use them, along with annotated screenshots: Google Docs is truly one of my favorite tools for teaching and learning because of the features ...

10 tips for using Facebook in the classroom

Facebook is a vital tool for teaching and learning in the 21st century and for making education more social. It is already being widely used in colleges and universities across the UK and globally, but it has the potential to be a game changer for teachers, schools and the classroom. Here's ten tips to help get you started. 1. Use Facebook groups to create a space to share educational resources and ...

Video: The common link in today’s ed-tech trends

Technology is transforming the world of education. What many do not realise, however, is that the common denominator behind some of today’s biggest ed-tech trends is something we’ve been familiar with for many years: video. Video has been penetrating the education market like no other technology and is becoming one of the most popular activities on the Web. In 2012 alone, Internet users watched four billion videos per day. ...

The misguided stigma of using social media in schools

Why is social media such a hotly contested topic in schools? There are many ways, as Principal Eric Sheninger explains, in which schools can harness social media and blogging to demonstrate the relevance of learning, and introduce the 'real world' audience to students. Social Media is bad and has no place in education. It is a distraction to the teaching and learning process. If students are allowed to use social ...

13 tips for using visualisers to enhance the sciences

Here is the third article in our series on maximising the use of visualisers across different curriculum areas. Below you will find practical tips on using visualisers to help pupils retain scientific concepts. Use visualisers at key stages 1 and 2 to introduce material properties and spark pupils’ imagination: Compare a variety of seeds and discuss the differences Display a vegetable, photograph it, and repeat each day for a week to record ...

How has ICT changed learning, relationships and policies in schools?

Drawing from his experience as a Headteacher, Mark Steed describes the main impacts that ICT and the internet is having on education in schools, from the benefits of 'anywhere, anytime' learning and increased student collaboration, to the burdens of keeping students safe online and regulating access to the internet. Great claims have been made over the past twenty years about the impact that ICT would have on teaching and learning, ...