ICT for Education Reviews for Education

ICT
for Education
ICT for Education
Reviews
2014
An ICT Media Publication
Helping teachers with today’s technology
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews
Scratch Programming in
Easy Steps
Review by Jodie Lopez, Getting Into
Literacy
Scratch Programming in Easy Steps
by Sean McManus is a must have
guide for anyone who is starting out
with programming under the new
computing curriculum in a primary
or secondary school.
It covers everything you need to
know about Scratch from the very
beginning, including helpful advice
about how Scratch is used and
the differences between the older
version 1.4 and the newer 2.0, with
the plus and minus points for each.
Teachers who have never used
Scratch before will find this a helpful
and easy-to-follow book that will
talk them through from lesson one
to making fantastic projects with
their students. Those who are more
advanced will find the layout of the
book enables them to easily dip in
to areas that will help them advance
their skills further.
The tips on the side of each
page are written from the author’s
perspective and the author’s opinions
are based on extensive use of
Scratch, providing a refreshing extra
level to this book that makes it
handy in the classroom.
As well as being a must-have for
an ICT/Computing department, the
book would also make a great gift
for a child as it is so easy to follow
and does exactly what it says on the
cover.
Verdict 10/10
Reviews
Kudlian AppFurnace
E-Safety for the iGeneration
Brilliant Ideas for Using ICT
in the Inclusive Classroom
Review by Sarah Connor, ICT teacher
at Sir Bernard Lovell School
Review by Jodie Lopez, Getting Into
Literacy
Review by Jodie Lopez, Getting Into
Literacy
E-Safety for the iGeneration by Nikki
Giant is aimed at ‘combating the
misuse and abuse of technology in
schools’ and is tailored to deal with
the potentially negative aspects
of technology. The book discusses
everything from identity theft to
copyright infringement and a whole
range of things in between. It also
covers dangers to pupils ranging
from cyberbullying to addiction.
These issues will always be
difficult to cover and will not always
appeal to the innovative ICT leader
who wants to make the best use of
technology. However, they are issues
that need to be considered and this
book is a good read for those in a
position of responsibility within a
school – from subject leaders to the
senior leadership team – as it points
out some useful areas that need to
be addressed and things to include in
policies and plans.
The activities in the book to use
with students provide good ideas that
could easily be adapted for all year
groups as appropriate. While not
necessarily a dip-in, dip-out book,
this guide provides a good read to
remind people of the responsibilities
of a school with regard to the use
of technology. It is also a helpful
reminder of the full range of areas
e-safety must cover.
The first thing that struck me when I
opened this book by Sally McKeown
and Angela McGlashon was how well
it is laid out. It is formatted as a series
of numbered ideas. Each idea has some
narrative about the recommended use
of the relevant software and hardware,
and includes real examples from
schools talking about how they have
incorporated the idea into their own
inclusive classrooms.
For each idea there are also tips
on other ways in which you could
implement the idea and the contacts
and web links you will need to either
download or buy the software and
hardware needed.
The case studies and examples from
schools are really powerful and talk
about the benefits the idea has had on
individual children and their specific
needs.
This is not a book full of free ideas.
There are examples using free
software and downloads, but the book
ranges from these to very specialist
equipment and programmes. With
school budgets being so precious,
especially for children with special
educational needs, this book is a
fantastic way to find out which pieces
of software and hardware will be of
real value to your school and the
children you teach.
This book is published by David Fulton
Books and is a must-have for special
educational needs budget holders.
We have used AppFurnace with Year 8
pupils through to ICT BTEC students in
Year 10 and 11. It has been an invaluable
cross-curricular resource that has
helped engage our students in a variety
of subjects, as well as providing them
with a useful tool for revision and
independent learning.
For example, our Hair & Beauty BTEC
students have been using the software
to create apps that offer helpful tips
on different hairstyles according to hair
type and length. It is a creative way for
the students to record what they have
learnt and develop app building and
computing skills. Other class projects
have included creating an interactive
map app that highlights areas of
interest within and near our school.
Our PE students have used the tool
to build apps such as a bleep tests to
improve fitness, as well as apps that
provide step-by-step instructions on
how to play football and the rules of
rugby.
The great thing about AppFurnace is
that it can be as simple or complex
as you like. Its intuitive drag-and-drop
format makes it a straight-forward
resource to implement with younger
pupils, while older students can
experiment with Java Script to add
more complex commands to their app.
I would definitely recommend
AppFurnace to other schools, primary
or secondary. It is very easy to use
and is a creative way to bring the
curriculum to life.
Verdict 10/10
Verdict 8/10
Verdict 10/10
Stinkyink.com
Zu3D
Review by Sarah Underwood, editor,
ICT for Education
Review by Lydia Underwood, Collis
Primary School
Printer ink may not be a top priority
in the classroom, but it becomes an
essential product when worksheets
or assessments must be printed
and the ink or toner light on the
printer is flashing ominously.
Recognising that schools want
to minimise time spent on
consumables such as printer ink,
stinkyink does much of the work
for them, providing hassle free
ordering, next day delivery included
in prices, fast replacement of any
faulty products and a friendly
service.
Contracts are not a requirement
and you can negotiate pretty
much any kind of commercial
relationship with the company that
suits your school. The printer ink
products may not be the cheapest
in the market, but they are quality
products at competitive prices.
Elements of the service that are
particularly useful include the
ability to give stinkyink a list of
printers and where they are located
in school. When a printer is out of
ink, you don’t need to remember
the type and model of the printer.
Instead you just call stinkyink, tell
it where the printer is located and
the company will despatch the
correct products for the device.
Beyond ink and toner cartridges,
stinkyink is planning to branch out
into other stationary lines, which
could be a bonus for its customers
Zu3D stop-motion animation
software allows children of all ages
to create animated films quickly
and easily. It is really fun to do and
can be done at school or at home,
either individually or in pairs or
groups. Making up the characters and
planning the story means you have
to think creatively. Then you need to
make the characters – the software
comes with plasticine, but you could
use something else – and start
making the animation.
Making the animation takes time
as you have to take lots of frames
with the web cam, but you can
review what you have done as you
go along and see how the story is
progressing. Once the film is made,
the really fun bit is adding music,
text and credits.
The software gives you plenty
of choices. You can slow down or
speed up your film, add speech
bubbles, import music or video,
record narration or sound effects,
make time lapse films and loads
more.
It really is easy and fun to do, but
if you get stuck the Zu3D website
has tutorials to help you. I used it
at home with school friends and we
all agreed it would be fun to use
in school both for ICT and creating
stories.
VERDICT 9/10
Verdict 9/10
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews
Charanga Music World
Review by Chris Blurton, Haytor View
Primary School
pupils goals and objectives to work
towards. I recommend the resource;
it’s easy to use, can make music
practice fun and gives generalist
teachers the confidence to teach
music.
VERDICT
9/10
Leba Innovation
Review by ICT for Education testing
team
Charanga Music World is a resource
that provides an online space where
pupils can participate in interactive
musical games and activities as
well as challenge their musical
knowledge with quiz questions. The
resource is available to schools
either directly or through local music
education hubs.
Chris Blurton, a teacher at Haytor
View Primary School in Devon, says:
“Charanga Music World supports 24
instruments including guitar, piano,
ukulele and violin. When teaching
children to play an instrument, the
biggest challenge is encouraging
them to practise, but we’ve found the
interactive music-related games and
quizzes in Charanga can keep pupils
engaged and actually motivate them
in many ways.’
Pupils are able to create their
own avatars and earn coins when
they complete a new level of
achievement. The computer gaming
element can help them grasp the
technical aspects of music, such
as notation, scales and instrument
technique. Teachers can upload
lesson plans to the resource,
allowing pupils to go over what they
learnt in the lesson and continue
practising their pieces of music in
between lessons. The module for
guitar is particularly useful and
includes various ability levels, giving
Reviews
and manufactures them in the UK,
making it responsive to local needs.
It also recognises the uniqueness
of the school environment, making
its products robust, secure and
easy to move between classrooms.
Leba’s products are well worth
considering for any school looking
for robust and reliable options for
mobile device storage, charging and
synchronisation.
Verdict 10/10
ClickView
Leba Innovation offers a wide
range of storage, charging and
synchronising cases and trolleys for
all types of mobile devices including
laptops, netbooks and tablets. The
popular Apple iPad is catered for, as
is the Apple iPod, and both types
of devices can be charged and
synchronised at the same time with a
feature called NoteManage allowing
the user to select which devices are
charged and which synchronised
depending on what each unit will be
used for.
A recent addition is a case with an
LED indicator showing when stored
iPads are charged and synchronised,
while a good solution for schools
with tablets from different vendors is
a USB-based charging unit.
There are also options for
individual charging lockers for
mobile computing devices brought
into school by students. Such a
variety of cases and carts should
meet most schools’ requirements,
but the company will also custom
build solutions to meet more specific
needs.
Leba designs products in-house
ClickView is a media hosting platform
that enables schools to organise
and manage video, audio and image
files. The overall package can bring
all media from each department into
one organised place where users
can view files from any internet
connected computer. The software
is stored on a school’s server and
is also synchronised in a cloud,
allowing teachers and students
to access files using any device
including Apple iPads and iPhones.
The content of the already
established library covers a wide
range of subjects including ICT.
The video clips are sourced from
professional broadcasters. Once
logged in, ClickView provides the
opportunity for students to change
their libraries and add their own
content that can then can be shared
in ClickView Exchange, where
students and schools can share
selected videos.
ClickView 24/7 is an area where
students and staff can view and
use any free to air TV programmes.
Teachers can see a news report one
evening, find it the next day using
ClickView 24/7 and use it as a starter
to a lesson. This allows teachers
to teach current up to date issues
without searching through free online
video sites. Students and staff can
edit any free to air TV programme
and use the content in presentations
or edit it into a video report made by
students.
If used in the correct way this is a
good solution for schools that want
to digitise there current DVDs and
want staff and students to access
these files from anywhere using
a variety of devices. It also avoids
reliance on YouTube for video clips.
ClickView is a great resource to have
in any school and has the potential
to change the way media is used for
teaching and learning.
Verdict 9/10
Camtasia 8
Review by Jodie Lopez, Getting Into
Literacy
web.
Captions or callouts from the video
can be animated to make them
even more impressive, which can
make a huge difference in producing
professional looking videos. The
upgraded transitions, screen capture
technology and library of readymade themes also helps you look
like a professional video producer.
My favourite addition is the
capability to add a quiz or test to
your video, great for any teacher
considering the flipped classroom
model or simply wanting to provide
homework via a learning platform or
website. You can collate responses
and results and the software marks
the test for you.
Camtasia is not cheap as far as
school software goes, but it is well
worth having a few licences in
school for specialist work.
VERDICT
10/10
Purple Mash
I have been using Camtasia Studio
for a few years to create ‘how-touse’ videos for a range of ICT tools.
Camtasia can record whatever you
are doing on screen as well as your
voice and/or you from a webcam to
create a video about whatever you
like. The editing suite then allows
you to add captions, labels, effects,
titles and more to your video before
producing it for a variety of output
choices.
Camtasia Studio 8 is the newest
release and I am astounded at the
changes and upgrades. The multitrack timeline did not seem important
to start with until I realised I could
show two or more videos at the
same time. For example, I can now
show what I am doing onscreen
alongside a video sourced from the
Review by Lucy Wester, Broadclyst
Primary School
2Simple’s Purple Mash online
creative space is very accessible
and versatile. It offers a wealth of
powerful tools, such as 2Publish,
game creation, animation and
3D modelling. I have used it with
foundation, year 2 and year 3
classes.
The fun educational activities are
updated with new additions on a
regular basis, which means there is
always something to support and
enhance what I am teaching. The
topics are provided under different
themes such as dinosaurs, Greeks
or plants and the Latest Activities
section provides an update on what
is new.
Because of its flexibility, Purple
Mash is ideal for extension activities.
For example, we have recently
been exploring ‘directions’ in a
mathematics activity. Purple Mash
offers a turtle extension activity in
which students program a turtle to
take specific directions – two spaces
ahead, turn to the left 90 degrees,
three spaces to the right and so on.
It was a fun activity that spanned
numeracy and design technology.
Similarly, in a science activity, the
2Animate tool can be used to build
an animation. By creating up to 10
individual slides we could show a
seed growing into a plant.
One of my favourite areas is
2Publish Extra within the Creative
Tools section. I regularly use this
instead of using a plain Word
document. Asking key stage 1
children to write on a standard word
document often fails to inspire them,
but using the colours and images
within 2Publish makes activities
more fun and engaging. The children
love writing newspaper articles and
leaflets, which are easy activities that
can be used across all curriculum
areas.
If I could alter something in the
software, I would refine the process
of saving files. The software offers
the normal save functions, but many
key stage 1 children accidently use
the back button or exit without
saving. An automatic save every few
seconds, or additional reminders to
save before exiting, would be a safer
option.
Verdict 9/10
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews
Clicker 6
Review by Sue Carlyon, outreach
advisory teacher, Plymouth County
Council
full programme from the Crick Software
site.
Verdict 10/10
Splash! City
Review by Sue Carlyon, outreach
advisory teacher, Plymouth County
Council
You may have tried Crick Software’s
Clicker 4 or 5 and found they required
too much adult input, but look again
at Clicker 6 and be prepared to be
pleasantly surprised.
According to Crick Software’s
website: “Clicker is the literacy tool
that supports children of all ages and
abilities in a creative and engaging way.
It consists of a primary talking word
processor, an integrated word predictor,
built-in painting tools, and Clicker Sets
which are half screen grids or full
screen page activities.”
Would you teach reading using the
Complete Works of Shakespeare?
Probably not, so why is the preferred
word processor in the majority of
primary schools one that is designed
for adults?
Clicker 6 gets down to basics and
is a comprehensive literacy package
for primary students with or without
special educational needs and
disabilities. As well as Clicker 6, Crick
Software has developed two Clicker
apps for the iPad, Clicker Docs and
Clicker Sentences. These integrate with
Clicker 6, enabling work produced on
an iPad to be completed on a PC.
One of the many beneficial aspects
of Clicker 6 is the ease with which it is
possible to create differentiated activities
in minutes using Wizards. The Crick
software website offers 90-second
training videos and handouts to help
you through the process. Crick also
provides full technical support and you
can download a free 28-day trial of the
science and technology.
My only criticism of the programme
is that it can be time consuming to
create an onscreen version of a class
worksheet, so prior preparation is
required.
Verdict 9/10
Yes Programme
most useful effect is that once pupils
realise a certain topic is used in a job
that interests them, they pay more
attention to the topic in lessons.
VERDICT 9/10
DragonNaturally Speaking
eview by Jodie Lopez, Getting Into
Literacy
Review by Irene Ciapryna, headteacher
at St Joseph’s RC Junior School
Students with a physical disability
who have to rely on adult support
for all recording in mathematics can
become disillusioned and may fall
behind their peers. An important part
of mathematical learning is to perform
calculations, make mistakes and
correct them, but when a student is
not able to record, he or she misses
out on vital learning opportunities.
Moving forward, there are additional
hurdles to overcome when students
are asked to make use of mathematical
equipment, such as rulers or
protractors.
Splash! City is designed to meet
the needs of students with physical
difficulties, giving them a platform they
can use at a more independent at all
levels. Splash! City - Infant and Junior
introduces young students to a drawing
package and allows them to explore
pattern and shape using a palette of
tools including an onscreen ruler and
protractor.
The software has numerous
worksheets covering all aspects of
mathematics, which can be printed out
or completed onscreen. All worksheets
can be edited in Teacher Mode or you
can create your own. There is also
a blank page where it is possible to
set out sums and show workings, and
the page background can be set to a
grid, graph paper or plain. Splash! City
Senior gives additional support for
The voice recognition is amazing and
has come a long way since I last tried
using a similar programme years ago.
The only drawback of this software is
the amount of storage space it takes
on the computer. If you have older
school computers they may start to
freeze quite a bit
Verdict 9/10
Reading Champion
Review by Marita Lightbody and her 7
year old daughter Charlize
Yes Programme is a bank of 90 threeto-four minute films that show pupils
real life occupations using skills
covered by core subjects in the national
curriculum at Key Stage 2. The videos
are not about putting children on the
career treadmill. Instead, they provide
engaging and interesting information
so pupils know why they are learning
something. This is a good tool for
ensuring that pupils have a broad
appreciation of different careers and an
understanding of how the curriculum
connects to those careers.
Irene Ciapryna, headteacher at
St Joseph’s RC Junior School in
Hendon, says: “We use the videos
at the beginning or end of a lesson
to introduce or reinforce what is
being taught. As a school with a high
percentage of pupils from ethnic
minorities, the resource helps us provide
a fair representation of a diverse society.
The videos also provide non-gender
specific roles, helping us to encourage
our young people to think about a
range of jobs irrespective of their gender
and ethnicity, and helping us work on
aspirations very effectively.”
Pupils can be inspired to consider
different occupations, but perhaps the
RDragon Naturally Speaking is a piece
of voice-to-text software, but it does
much more than that. You can use it to
dictate your words into type in Word,
Open Office, on the web and even to
update Facebook and Twitter statuses.
Straight away, I can think of endless
uses in education. The majority I would
say lie in special educational needs
education. Imagine the freedom for
some of your students if they could
stop worrying about dyslexia or pen
holding and just let the words flow
freely onto paper via the headset and
microphone that come in the box as
part of the package. I can imagine lots
of children preferring to dictate their
work, particularly where traditional
writing causes such a hindrance that
they need another way to express
themselves.
On top of being able to dictate into a
programme, Dragon Naturally Speaking
can interpret voice commands such
as ‘search Google for restaurants
in Greenwich’ and can also open
applications from voice commands.
The software has been made
compatible with Gmail and Hotmail
to allow you to use voice-to-text for
emails and also give commands to
action.
Reading Champion in Texthelp’s
second app in the iTunes Store, its
first being iReadWrite. The software
was developed with young, struggling
readers in mind, has over 450 passages
and is suitable for readers of all
abilities.
When you open the app you are
asked to enter a name and age. The
app then explains how to select the
right reading level and you are given
a passage to read before choosing
an easier or harder passage. After
selecting the level you are happy with,
you are then presented with another
menu that explains what happens next.
At any time, a child can click on a
word and hear how it is pronounced
and also the meaning of the word.
Once the child has read the passage
once, the next step is to read it again
while recording it. When the child has
ready two screens, you press stop and
play it back. and it also shows you
the pages again so you can read along
with your child as the narrator.
While you are playing back, tap the
words the child doesn’t know and they
are highlighted. The software then
calculates how well the child has done.
As a parent, I really enjoyed this app
with my daughter and was delighted
to see how happy she was at hearing
herself read the passage back as well
as seeing what medal she had earned.
Verdict 10/10
Autology
Review by ICT for Education testing
team
Autology is a large resource of content
for teachers and students working
both at school and at home. It brings
together and indexes information by
key stage, sourcing from thousands
of websites, regional learning grids,
schools’ own servers and systems,
and multiple publishers. A teacher or
student can search all sources at once
and download relevant information.
While Autology is content heavy it is
not a heavy school server user as the
access software resides in a school’s
virtual learning environment or
intranet, while the content is hosted on
Autology servers. A software licence
costs £99 per year for a school,
although publisher content must be
purchased separately.
The software is available to meet
the needs of students aged from 11 to
18 and comes with teacher support
documents. The company is planning
a primary version of the solution that
will aggregate and index appropriate
content. Looking at the rich content
and reasonable price of the secondary
software, this is a useful and costeffective tool that can be used across
the curriculum.
VERDICT 9/10
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews
Reviews by Rob Davies, director of lea rning, I T, a t the Lea rning School s Tru s t
FUZE
.On receiving the FUZE I unpacked it
with great anticipation, looking forward
to what awaited me. On initial inspection
I was a little disappointed. I guess I had
expected to see some sort of futuristic,
slick, curvy machine. Instead I was
greeted by quite a boxy looking set up
similar to a 1980s home computer with
a bread board on the top that was far
from futuristic looking.
However, delving a little deeper, what
I found was a well put together piece
of kit that contained all the essential
ingredients to get students enjoying
programming quickly. The only
exception is the lack of a VGA adaptor
for the HDMI port. This means you
cannot connect the FUZE to a monitor
without an HDMI port. A port is available
from FUZE at an additional cost.
Connecting everything together was
quick and easy, and to ensure that it
did exactly what I would want it to
do, which is teach and enthuse young
people to program, I got my eight year
old son to help me give it the once
over. We had some initial problems
making it work and got a couple of error
messages that seemed to stop for no
apparent reason. But once we did get
it going properly, eyes started to light
up with constant yelps of ‘Wow! This is
amazing!’.
The FUZE comes with a handy book
of BASIC programs to run, starting with
a very basic ‘Hello World’ program. It
takes you through everything you need
to do step by step, including making
mistakes so that you can identify why
something doesn’t work and what you
might do so that it does. This proved
to be an excellent way of approaching
the tasks, as not only did we learn
more doing it this way, but we also
quickly understood how BASIC works
and could manipulate the program with
our own variations. As you work your
way through the programs they get
progressively harder and allow you to
build on the understanding achieved
in previous tasks. Activities are also
available online.
One of the great features of the FUZE
is the box of LED and other electrical
components that allow you to use the
FUZE to create programs with an output.
This really does bring the whole product
to life. However, while on the desk in
a classroom I can see some of these
going missing.
The FUZE is a brilliant product for
education. It may not be attractive,
but it is solid enough to survive
rough treatment and oozes the 1980s
programming spirit that we are trying to
bring back. With some time and effort, it
could also probably be replicated more
cheaply by computing and DT teachers
should they have the time to do so.
Where the FUZE won me over is in the
use of BASIC and the carefully thought
through, well explained exercises and
outputs that come with it. This really
allows computing to take place within
the classroom without the teacher being
a computing expert and should diminish
some of the anxiety that the new
computing curriculum has caused. Using
the FUZE is fun and makes you want to
use it more and more. I would certainly
consider using it with my students and I
view it as fantastic tool for teachers and
students in Key Stage 2 and Key Stage
3 in particular
Verdict 9/10
GCSE Computing Mooc
This Massive Open Online Course, or
Mooc for short, has been developed
by OCR, Cambridge University Press
and the Raspberry Pi Foundation to
support the teaching of the OCR GCSE
Computer Science course. In short, the
invaluable support it gives students
and teachers is an amazing reason to
choose the OCR Computer Science
specification if you are starting out
with GCSE Computer Science for the
first time. The best part is that it is free
and can be accessed at any time.
All users, whether teachers or
students, have to register to use the
site. This is a quick process and once
you have access to the Mooc, the
content is clearly laid out using a
menu on the left hand side of the web
page. The section ‘Fundamentals of a
Computer System’, for example, is then
broken down further into sub sections,
each of which has an instructional
video and a short test to ascertain
understanding of the content.
Each video is professionally produced
and delivers content with visual
stimulation. The content is explained
in a clear manner and should allow
students to understand the principles
being explained and make good
progress through the resources. This
is likely to remove a lot of the burden
being carried by anxious, first time,
computer science teachers.
There are not too many downsides
to this support for teaching GCSE
Computer Science. I suppose the main
criticism would be that it focuses on
the OCR specification, although there
are not that many differences between
different specifications and it should
provide excellent support whatever
specification is followed. The Mooc is
still also being developed, although the
next phase of development is clearly
outlined once you login.
Overall, this is an excellent resource
that I personally will find very useful.
It is free and accessible by students
and staff, which should give students
freedom to make progress at their own
pace.
Verdict 10/10
Switched on Computing
Having spoken with primary school
colleagues who are anxious about the
new computing curriculum, I was keen
to look at Rising Stars’ Switched on
Computing resources for Year 3 and
they didn’t let me down.
The Year 3 pack comes with a teacher’s
book, a CD ROM with PDFs of the
teacher’s book and resources, posters
outlining learning expectations and a
breakdown of all the Key Stage 1 and
Key Stage 2 topics that are covered.
The teacher’s book claims complete
coverage of the programme of study
for computing and I could not see
any issue with this claim. Given that
the units and resources are aimed
at primary schools, I was interested
to see how easy they would be for
non-specialists to use. I was pleasantly
surprised.
There is a clear overview of the
units, with expectations for different
lessons as well as how these fulfil
the computing programme of study.
In addition, the software and hardware
required is listed, with software being
either commonly held packages such
as Microsoft Office or free software
such as Scratch and Google Apps for
Education.
The teacher’s book says it is not
designed to be used prescriptively, but
it is a fantastic resource and prop for
those who feel less comfortable in the
delivery of the new curriculum.
One great feature that brings an
element of gaming into the resource is
the assessment feature outlined in the
teacher’s book. Through the collection
of evidence, teachers have the ability
to award badges that correspond to
the national curriculum through the
secure Makewav.es website. Students
can then embed their badges on their
Makewav.es profiles or put them on
other websites and create a sort of
digital CV or list of achievements.
Makewav.es is particularly suitable as
any adult that has access must have
demonstrated that they have CRB
clearance. The badges also provide
a way of demonstrating student
progress.
Units are explained thoroughly with
suggested links to other subjects
and ideas as to how the tasks could
be part of theme-based teaching.
Resources that are available on the
CD ROM are also signposted, as well
as e-safety points and how to obtain
the software being recommended
for the completion of tasks. Tasks
are interesting and include creating
animations, programs and videos.
Simply explained, the tasks allow
teachers to plan effectively for
their classes and include ideas for
extensions within the classroom and
for homework.
The Rising Stars Switched on
Computing pack is fantastic. If I
was teaching Year 3, this would be
an invaluable resource that would
make me feel far more confident in
delivering the programme of study
without being a computing expert and
without having to go out and spend
a lot of money on new software and
hardware. A must buy.
Verdict 10/10
Espresso Coding
Espresso Coding provides a tool for
primary school students to learn and
develop visual coding skills. It comes
from the same company that offers
Espresso Primary and the Clipbank
service and is a paid resource, although
access is free until October 2014.
Once logged in to Espresso Coding,
the software is set out in a typically
primary oriented way that is easy to
understand and child friendly with
images like cartoon fish, wizards and
spaceships.
On the home screen, each year group
has around three units. If you select a
unit, there is then a series of around
six lessons per unit with each lesson
broken down step by step. Each
step has a video and, once watched,
students can use the integrated
software to replicate what they have
viewed.
Espresso Coding is simple to use and
understand and allows students to
work at their own pace. It isn’t as rich
as some resources supporting the
computing curriculum and focuses
exclusively on coding, but it is
engaging and it should prove popular
with children. While the software is
currently free to use, from October it
will carry a cost.
Verdict 9/1
Reviews
Reviews
ReportBox
Review by Matt Hogan, Alderley Edge
School for Girls
Review by Stuart Churchill, former
headteacher, Deanshanger Primary
School
THE
New Ways to Learn
PAPER P RTAL
Parental Engagement
Reinvented
Reviews
competitively and customer support
from the ReportBox team is excellent
with glitches often dealt with as you talk
on the phone. All in all, an excellent
product.
Verdict The Paper Portal combines Augmented Reality and bespoke, interactive
digital content to appeal
to the rapidly increasing number of smart device users.
The service is entirely free for your students’ families and utilises a
free app available from the
Apple and Google Play stores.
“
”
Reviews
Rising Stars’ Maths
Eduschemes
Apps Central
Review by Emma Perkins, KS2 manager, St
Barnabas CE Primary
Review by Matt Hogan, Alderley Edge School
for Girls
Review by Matt Hogan, Alderley Edge School
for Girls
The materials in Rising Stars’ Maths are
excellent as they truly promote all three
of the main aims of the new curriculum.
Working with the software, children can use
their reasoning skills when discussing their
solutions. They can problem solve to find as
many solutions as possible and illustrate their
fluency with different methods and strategies.
During this review of the software, it was very
rewarding to hear the children explaining
and justifying their answers and theories. The
solution also presents the opportunity for
children to show how much they had learned.
The materials are easy to follow and the
examples given are were very helpful as I
could then think of other examples relevant
to a particular area we were been looking
at. The children were enthusiastic, because
the solution enables all abilities to join in,
regardless of their mathematical ability or
understanding. As activities were generally
delivered to the whole class, the variety of
examples benefitted all levels of children. The
children could also listen to different ways
that problems had been approached and find
out that certain calculations can have different
answers.
I recommend this resource to other schools. It
has been a pleasure to listen to the children’s
responses to the various different activities.
I am going to continue using these and will
definitely use more of them with the whole
class and with individual groups of children to
form independent tasks. As the Maths leader,
I have already begun to share some of the
activities with the rest of the teaching staff to
show them how to build reasoning into their
lessons for the new curriculum.
Eduschemes provides the resources to
deliver the new Computing curriculum
within three schemes of work. Each
scheme has a theme – Secret Agent,
World Tour and App Planet – and all are
interesting and engaging for students.
The resources are accessed by a secure
student or teacher login to Eduschemes’
website. Most pages can be opened
and viewed within four clicks of a
mouse, ensuring students are on task
quickly rather than navigating through a
complex menu. The resources are all
browser based, which makes it difficult
for a teacher to customise a lesson to
fit their own context, but does make
the presentations look professional
and quick to use. Each lesson has
differentiation built in and detailed
instructions for the teacher and students
to follow. At the end of a lesson there is
a Your Levels area which students and
teachers can use. Although levels are
not referred to in the new curriculum,
this does give clear statements of
progression and learning.
Eduschemes has produced structured
lesson activities with minimal teacher
input. Students are able to learn
independently and progress within the
themed projects. This approach is great to
introduce pupils to computing studies and
Eduschemes also minimizes the use of
text throughout, especially for years 7 and
8, so pupils maximise their time on task.
Overall Eduschemes is a good starting
point for the new Computing curriculum
and a resource with great ideas to use in
lessons.
Apps Central provides apps to the
education sector and can tailor the apps to
school or college requirements. The app is
free for parents and students to download
from the relevant online store, making it
available to use on many devices including
iPads, Android smartphones, iPhones and
other tablet PCs.
The apps have a few basic features that
parents and students can use for free. The
calendar shows events that are taking
place and, when viewed, each event will
show more details to the user along with
a map. As some schools already have a
calendar, events can be imported via API
or CSV, which will save administration time.
Each calendar event can be shared using
Twitter, Facebook or an email. The calendar
can be filtered by the parent or student. For
example, if the student is in year 7, a parent
can remove events that are associated with
other year groups.
The news section of the app can be linked
to a news section on the school website by
RSS feed. This will save support staff time
as they do not need to add any news items
into the app. The entire app is controlled
by the school using a secure administration
centre website, which is easy to use and
manage. If parents and students allow
push notifications from the app, the school
can send a message to the app telling it to
display a message on the device. This can
be used instead of text messaging services.
Overall, the app is a good quality product
that could be useful for schools and
colleges to support engagement and
communication with parents.
10/10
Zu3D
From just £1per pupil per annum
Reduced Print Costs
iTunes Voucher
Regular Communication
Video on Demand
Showcase “School Life”
Ongoing and Engaging
Showcase School Life
@newways2learn
www.newwaystolearn.com
info@newwaystolearn.com
0844 66 55 745
New Ways to Learn offers a portfolio of
products and services including Paper
Portal. Paper Portal uses augmented
reality in a unique way to engage
parents with school communication. The
concept of Paper Portal is innovative and
exciting for anyone to use.
The product is based on a paper letter
that can be sent home, but in the letter
there are areas that can be viewed
through a smartphone or tablet camera.
When the parent downloads a fee
app to view the images on the letter, a
video will start to play over that image.
For example, there can be an area
for extra-curricular videos noted by
a unique image of stars on the letter.
When the parent views this image using
the app and smartphone, the unique
image disappears and the video of
extra-curricular activities starts to play.
The areas can display any digital video
content including scrolling news, dates,
or an image gallery.
The whole process is easy to manage
and is supported on a secure cloudbased system. The school drags and
drops content from the letter onto
the website and Paper Portal ensures
it all works. This will undoubtedly
create excitement among education
professionals, although further thinking
is required about how to use augmented
reality in the classroom to engage
students. That said, Paper Portal is a
product that will engage parents. An
excellent innovative product.
Verdict 10/10
ReportBox makes the end-of-year report
writing process significantly less arduous and
virtually error free.
The first thing to mention is that ReportBox
works entirely online, so staff can work
on it wherever they can access the
internet. The school administrator sets
up the classes (lists of names are easily
imported), adding teachers for each class
(who are automatically sent an email with
their login details), specifying the subjects
to be reported on for each class and
tweaking the format of the printed reports.
Next, teachers create their comment banks.
Typically, they will create three comments
for each subject - one for high attainers,
one for medium and one for low. However,
teachers can create additional comments
at each level if they wish.
Once the background work has been
done, teachers can go on to create
the reports. They open up a blank
template for each child and click on
the appropriate comments to import
them. Once imported, it is very easy to
fine tune each comment to accurately
reflect the individual child.
Creating a report in this way takes just
takes five to ten minutes, and when all
the reports have been completed and
checked they are downloaded as PDF
files and sent for printing or emailing
to parents. You end up with a set of
reports that are personalised despite
being created with considerable time
saving automation. I was happy to be
freed from hours of repetitive writing,
and the vast majority of our parents say
they prefer receiving in-depth ReportBox
reports.
Subscriptions to ReportBox are priced
Review by Matt Hogan, Alderley Edge
School for Girls
Zu3D is great stop-motion animation
software for students or even teachers
to use. It provides the freedom to create
good quality animations easily, either
in the classroom or at home. Zu3D
can be downloaded as an app for use
on tablets, or it can be purchased as
an animation kit. The kit comprises
all the equipment needed to get
started: Studio3 software, a high quality
webcam, plasticine and green cloth for
green screening.
The software supports a range of
features including audio import, titles
and credits, unlimited layers of videos
and speed up or slow down playback.
Every feature is easy to use and the
software is very intuitive. The use of
green screening and magic rubber
can be combined to create a great
animation. The green screen is used
to add an image behind the animation
and the magic rubber removes any
thread that is used, for example for a
flying space ship or aliens. Students can
also add speech bubbles to animations
and use time lapse features. Ideas and
animations can be shared through the
Zu3D online community. website.
This is great animation software and
a really engaging way for students to
learn.
Verdict 9/10
Verdict 10/10
Verdict 8/10
VERDICT
9/10
Reviews
Reviews
Epson EB-475Wi Projector
Review by Jodie Collins, primary ICT
specialist, @jodieworld
Gaia Technologies 3D
Learning Software
Review by Matt Hogan, Eaton Bank
School
immediately see the positive reactions
of students and an increase in the
enjoyment of lessons, and students
will be immersed in 3D learning.
Verdict 10/10
Airwatch
I have been a fan of Epson interactive
projectors since I saw the first one at
BETT a couple of years ago. I bought
one for the school hall as soon as I
could and it was used to great effect in
assemblies, PE lessons and more. The
ultra-short throw and interactivity using
the digital pens meant we could project
onto a normal dry wipe board giving us
dual functionality of the board as the
projector will work interactively on any
flat surface.
The Epson EB-475Wi is one of the
latest offerings and has even more
benefits. With the 475Wi you have two
digital pens meaning a teacher and
student can be working on the board
simultaneously. This is especially useful
for schools that project interactively
onto a desk as the 475Wi allows groups
to work collaboratively.
The EB-475Wi is very easy to set up
with a clear instruction manual (always
a bonus!) and the inbuilt 16W speaker
means that in a classroom there is no
need for an additional sound system.
In a hall or larger area you may wish
to boost sound with a separate set of
speakers.
For me, these interactive projectors
are the answer for a school wanting
to keep an interactive whiteboard, but
either wanting to cut down on space
used by the actual board or simply save
money. At £1649.99 (RRP) the EB-475Wi
is a cheaper alternative to an interactive
whiteboard without losing any of the
functionality. Service costs are also
reduced with a long lamp life of 4,000
hours in eco mode.
Verdict 8/10
Review by ICT for Education testing
team
As 3D projectors become more
affordable and 3D television emerges,
Gaia Technologies is offering a
3D-based learning solution that can be
considered by all schools. The software
has an extensive range of content for
both primary and secondary students
and covers a variety of subjects.
History comes to life as students
walk through World War I trenches and
interact with the soldiers. The soldiers
and characters can ask questions or
demonstrate an activity. This immersive
solution can be used with any
interactive whiteboard giving students
full control over their experience.
Science features give teachers
the opportunity to show various
experiments that would not pass a
classroom risk analysis. During the
heart activity students can see a
cross section of the heart with labels
for each chamber. The flow of blood
and the pumping of the heart can be
clearly seen from every possible angle.
This becomes a truly interactive activity
when students can increase the heart
rate and see in real time the affect of
blood flow through the heart. Students
can even start to create 3D movies if
they have access to a 3D camcorder.
Google now has 3D images that are
free to download.
Gaia Technologies provides the
solution in a variety of ways depending
on the needs of a school. It can, for
example, be a bookable whole school
resource on a small trolley. When a
school replaces a projector it should
consider one with 3D output capability.
Using Gaia’s 3D tools, teachers will
Airwatch provides software for mobile
device management that covers
all major devices including those
based on the Apple iOS, Android and
Windows operating systems, as well
as Blackberry and Symbian devices.
The software delivers apps and content
safely and securely to devices and has
a wide range of functionality including
automated device deployment and
configuration. It is possible to deploy
apps purchased in bulk through the
Apple Volume Purchase Programme,
securely store, update and distribute
school documents and track mobile
assets across school premises.
Conversely, school assets can be
wiped from student owned devices and
any policy violations, exceptions or
threats can be monitored in real time.
The software can be hosted on a school
server or delivered as a cloud solution,
freeing up school server resources.
The company’s presence in
both the enterprise and education
sectors ensures scalability and a
comprehensive product roadmap, but as
in every population of mobile devices
careful consideration needs to be given
to when, how and by who devices
will be used before a mobile device
management system is deployed.
Airwatch has the experience to offer
schools good advice.
VERDICT 9/10