resources update issue 69

Continuing our series of tasters of our digital resource evaluations, we bring you a selection of cross curricular, english, history and maths titles for primary and secondary: -

• Ginn: Interactive Literacy Multimedia
  Reading Level 4
• Ginn: Abacus Evolve: Teacher Toolkit Year 3 - Interactive Teaching Resources
• BBC Worldwide: Aztecs DVD Plus Pack
• 2Simple Software: 2 Create A Story

• Ginn: Abacus Evolve: Individual Practice Software Year 2 multi user pack
• I Can Use: Visual Communicator Pro
• Netsupport Ltd:
  Net Support for Schools Version 8
• Creative Children's Productions:
  The Marvels of Man

This is a very appealing product, designed to help improve literacy across the NC levels 1-5. Different genres of text are included on the CD-ROM, allowing for investigations, problem solving, making choices and using skills of inference and deduction. These are presented in many ways, some animated, some with music and other effects and some with pop-ups, which give additional information to the main body of text.

Although the software is designed for literacy activities whilst also developing skills in ICT, there are cross-curricular links to history, geography and science, as the children explore the Tudors, the Solar System and take voyages to other places. The Teacher’s Guide provides a lot of information including suggestions on how to use the texts and possible follow-up activities, which are differentiated and flexible.

This new maths program contains highly flexible planning tools and more challenging and interactive activities. It contains a set of 30 comprehensive weekly plans and related activities for teaching numeracy in Year 3. Each weekly plan consists of 2 units of work, based on NNS objectives, which can be used ‘as is’ or edited to suit the class.

The Teacher Toolkit includes a set of teacher cards, the Interactive Planner CD-ROM and the Interactive Teaching Resources CD-ROM. There are also printable teaching assistant notes with tips, homework sheets and assessment tasks and tests, which correspond to the units taught. The activities could also include paired or group practical activities or photocopy masters.
This program is ideal for updating the teaching of numeracy at any school.

Visual Communicator Pro is an interesting and versatile tool for producing a wide range of videos from simple birthday greetings and book reports in KS1/2 to detailed TV broadcasts in KS4. The User Guide is comprehensive and the Teachers’ Guide provides useful information demonstrating how QCA Schemes of Works can incorporate Visual Communicator Pro to develop children’s knowledge and understanding across the curriculum. Installation is straightforward and there are a number of quick-start templates in the downloadable Setup Guide and the Tutorial pages to help you get started.

Teachers will need to invest time initially to get the most out of this versatile product, however they will reap the benefits later, as Visual Communicator Pro offers a multi-sensory approach to teaching and learning through a medium that children enjoy.

Aztecs DVD Plus Pack

Net Support for Schools Version 8

BBC Worldwide

Aztecs is a DVD resource which is designed to support teachers in teaching history-led cross-curricular themes about The Aztecs and the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The DVD programmes put the Aztec empire into a historical context, explain its importance to us today and describe some of its main features and look at the Spanish invasion, which brought about the end of the empire.
The pack also includes some additional bonus video and also a “key words” section, comprehensive teacher’s notes, resources and a particularly useful list of relevant “Aztec” websites. There is also some detailed historical background information for teachers which gives a broad overview of the topic as well as suggestions as to how best to use the resource pack and DVDs.

Netsupport School version 8 is a desktop support package which is designed to make the management of student users easier. Version 8 has been developed to include several new features over and above version 7. The software has several different functions ranging from aspects of training through to monitoring and support activities. For example, one of the features enables a teacher to create a classroom layout of machines and students - this can help save teacher time easily especially when combined with the use of an interactive whiteboard. The training features of the program such as Show Leader enables a teacher to pass control of an activity on the network to a student who can then use the interactive whiteboard directly to demonstrate processes and ideas.

This is a fantastic ICT program aimed at developing literacy and ICT skills in younger children. The package contains video footage, drawing tools, moving background images, sound and simple animations, which the children use in producing their own story and are completely wowed by the results they produce.

Children view the package for tips on drawing using a mouse and designing a visual image for the story. The menu and function buttons are simple, guiding the children easily through issues such as adding text and recording their own sound. In checking work, listening skills and spellings are encouraged and reinforced.

The children celebrate success through showing their stories to the class on the interactive whiteboard. A great way to encourage imagination and fun!

The Marvels of Man is an exciting interactive package that allows children to travel the globe and marvel at the wonders of the world. The children travel from London with Eleanor Scott in her Grandfather’s Tiger Moth biplane to eleven famous monuments built over the past 5000 years.
Memoirs of each trip are collected in Eleanor’s scrapbook and the CD-ROM contains enjoyable songs to sing along to with music to print out: useful for both class assemblies and music lessons.

Children must solve clues as to the precise location they are heading in before visiting the next ‘marvel’. Clues involve language skills and some maths, too. This package has everything to offer and is extremely motivating and exciting to follow!

How closely does this resource match the curriculum?

• Check that there is enough relevance to justify the expense.
• Check what the product actually covers, and in how much depth.
• Consider whether you’re looking to plug a particular gap, or need an overall resource.
• Look at whether the resource can be used to teach all aspects of a topic, as a whole lesson or a lesson segment. Does the resource enable teachers to introduce, consolidate or revise the topics with the pupils?