resources update issue 78

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

• Controller Games Ltd: Busy Fingers 2
• The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music: SoundJunction Website
• Intuitive Media Ltd: GridClub SuperClubs

• Intuitive Media Ltd: SchoolNet Global
• Longman (Pearson): Digitexts:Interactive Reading Feargal Fly Private Eye
• TAG Learning Ltd: Image Blender 3

Are chemistry teachers more knowledgeable than maths teachers? Where do geography teachers stand? Which subject area boasts most eggheads! Find out if teachers of your subject are the brainiest in Britain by taking this quiz, 12 questions on a variety of subjects.

Plus - there are two prize draws of £250 to be won! one to be drawn from all the entrants with full marks (or nearest) and one from all the others - so you don't have to be brainy to win, but it helps!

Please remember to complete your contact details at the end of the quiz in order to be entered into the draw.

Proceed to quiz - Prize fund of £500!

Busy Fingers 2 is an easy to use program, which helps primary children learn to touch-type accurately and confidently.

The program acts as an online tutor for pupils. It shows which keys to press and which fingers to use through a simple but effective image of a pair of hands. Another useful feature is that this program offers feedback graphically, allowing the user to easily monitor their progress. The pupils can see which aspects of their keyboard skills need developing and which letters need to be practised. The graphics are simple, user friendly and uncluttered.

The progressive lessons help children build on their skills, which was evident as by the end of the first few lessons, some of the children were able to locate the correct keys without looking at the keyboard and were typing successfully.

Sound Junction - www.soundjunction.org is a website set up by The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music that will enable children and teachers to research and utilise information about how music is composed, developed, performed and produced through the experiences of real musicians by a range of interesting text and multimedia resources. Although focused at Key Stages 2 to 4, it will also serve as a good source of information for teachers and associated professionals. The key concepts (and associated resources) link appropriately into the National Curriculum. The site can be accessed by individual users or embedded into the teaching of lessons with the use of an interactive whiteboard. The strength of this website is its use of real musicians from a range of musical styles and cultures in promoting music making.

Longman’s Digitext Feargal Fly Private Eye, is just one of a series of non-linear interactive fiction and non-fiction texts. Designed to offer the reader a more interactive form of reading, it encourages involvement with the text. The detailed teacher’s book includes exemplified lesson notes and all the NLS Framework links for Year 3. There are fifteen days of planned work including suggestions for shared and independent writing and further suggestions such as investigating characters; note taking and creating Digitexts using PowerPoint or other presentation software among others. The story is about Feargal Fly, a down on his luck private eye who is given the chance to investigate the theft of a diamond from the local manor house. Working through the visual and written clues the children and Fergal can deduce who stole the diamond.

This secure site enables children to send emails and communicate with other subscribers across the country. It encourages the children to make friendships and discuss areas of their learning within a secure environment that is monitored by qualified mediators to ensure that no personal details or rudeness transpires between them.

ICT skills are developed as the children design and produce their own web pages and communicate by email. Children’s pages can be featured on ‘The page of the month’, but before they can access their web page they have to demonstrate their understanding of using the Internet by passing a test and gaining stars in the process. Having access to the site from home was a real benefit to the children’s development. Parents could rest easy as they knew their children could not access any inappropriate material.

ImageBlender 2 allows images to be easily manipulated. It is simple to use and students get results quickly. This keeps them motivated and builds up their confidence to experiment on their own. Students from KS2 upwards can use this software as it is easy to navigate and its use is open ended.
It is packed with image editing tools to support many curriculum areas, enabling pupils to maximise the impact of their work. Many of the standard editing tools are featured as well as sepia effects and 3D effects. A great feature allowed students to create storybooks, individually or in groups. Pages can be created, stored and edited, for their graphical and literal content including adding digital images from a range of sources. A great tool that enables pupils to explore and create.

• Decide what you want to achieve with ICT and then assess whether your school has the resources available.
• If you work in partnership with other schools, you may want to consider their resources, too.
• Discuss your ideas for ICT with teaching staff and get their views of products they’ve used.