resources update issue 55

• Alice Junior
• Radiowaves.co.uk
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Spark Learner

• Time Maps: The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany
• Catalyst Interactive Assessment for Learning
• Storybook Phonics 1
• Key Stage 2 Calculations

Alice Junior 5.50 published by Softlink Europe is an efficient management tool to help run the modern school learning resource centre.

A great emphasis is placed on child centered learning, developing individual research skills and discovery in today’s National Curriculum. Alice Junior provides the facilities for this plus a great deal more, especially in relation to more accurate record keeping and reduction in time spent administering the library or as it is becoming increasingly referred to, the multi-media learning resource centre.

Although Alice Junior presents the user with a relatively simple front end, managers need to be aware that behind lurks a very powerful, comprehensive data base with management tools to meet almost any situation. The software comes with comprehensive tutorial guides, installation notes, and excellent, context sensitive and general help menus.

This product provides the opportunity for students to be presented with a wide range of information about Germany and the Third Reich. It offers a series of maps, timelines and pop-up photographs for Key Stage 3 to A-level students. It is suitable for teachers to use as a polished presentation package, as well as for students to individually research topics. A password-accessed website provides further tasks, downloads of updates and information for both teachers and students.

The content is presented in an extremely professional manner and is an ideal tool for those interested in taking a serious look at this topic. I can see myself using it where I have to draw a map on the board, and its interactive nature makes it a much better resource than a simple paper map.

Radiowaves is an on-line, on-demand internet based radio station/webzine that is created by young people for young people. It comes as a starting block of a homepage and prestructured set of web pages on which students can publish whatever is produced. There are pre-prepared tutorials to help users create, edit and publish content, and teachers have ultimate control over the content on their
school’s site. Material for the Radiowaves network can be textual, pictorial or audio-the choice is up to you (or to be more precise the students!).

Radiowaves appears to offer a great chance for schools to do something new… something original…something innovative. It offers the chance to encourage students to develop new skills and to promote their own self confidence by participating in something challenging and different.

The Catalyst Interactive Assessment for Learning resource provides 20-question multiple choice tests for each unit of work in the science QCA scheme for Year 7. Each test has versions to suit pupils working at NC levels 2-6. Add-on packages are available for students working at levels 1-2 and for gifted and talented students.

Users access it through a browser via an internal web address. A database stores detailed records for each student, which can be viewed to find out what they need to
practice. The product makes assessment easier by removing the burden of test administration and marking from the teacher. The students get instant feedback and teachers are provided with detailed summaries of the test outcomes in as little as 20 minutes. The questions are
unambiguous and pitched at the right level.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Oxford University Press

This product is a web-based subscription site that provides an illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the many people who helped shape the history of the British Isles, provided of course they are already dead! It is aimed at anybody who wants to find out anything about anyone contained in their database: children, students, teachers or lecturers can uncover details not only about the great and the good, but also about people who have left their mark on history, be they good, bad or just bizarre.

So if you need to find a picture of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, the names of the Master of the Rolls, musical chart toppers or Nobel Prize winners, then this is the place
to look.

Storybook Phonics offers a stimulating storybased approach to phonics practice which helps children to read with confidence. It was easily installed on my computer and could be linked in with my existing planning and the Early Years literacy targets.

The software can be used with small groups or for whole class teaching with an interactive whiteboard. The stories, titles and ‘cover’ pictures can be discussed. Each word is highlighted as the story is ‘read’, the pace is excellent as is the sound quality. Navigation between pages is simple and the children were delighted with the colourful animated features. The games were engaging and included matching phonic sounds, identifying initial, middle and final letters with key blend sounds and the record sheets were simple and easy to use.

Spark Learner enables teachers and learners to organise their ideas in an idea or concept map, which can be used across the curriculum and age range. You can quickly assess students’ knowledge, in a visual and interesting way.

After studying Macbeth, this program was used with an interactive whiteboard to check the students’ knowledge and understanding. A branch of the idea map represented different parts of the play.

Spark Learner automatically converts their idea map into a text version. Pictures can be easily added. The program can also read the typed words back enabling the students to check their writing or hear someone else’s ideas. It is an ideal program to prepare students for writing tasks helping them to organise their ideas into paragraphs and could be particularly valuable to visual and kinaesthetic learners.

These 4 CD-ROMS form part of a suite of Numeracy titles covering KS2 and specifically cover the topic of calculations. There are 16 activities, which include both short and long multiplication and division, using brackets, division including money, multiplication and place value, the grid method, and halving and doubling. These imaginative activities are suitable for use on the interactive whiteboard as they consist of large-format graphics. The titles are highly interactive, with easily navigable pages and with clear, logical demonstrations. They are also easily translatable into a computer suite activity.

These titles are ideal as an introductory teaching tool or for revision. The subjects cover basic mathematical operations but are presented in such an exciting, creative way that all children will to want to take part.

Check the support offered by the publisher. This is particularly important for new, expensive or sophisticated titles
• Check whether any training is offered by the publisher
• Schoolzone evaluations also comment on the ease of installation and support materials, including handbooks, worksheets etc