Show your Students How Google Works

This tool is a bit like when you grab a glass of milk from the fridge and one of your kids asks where does milk come from?  And you then realise that we often overlook the process behind some of the most common things to discover there is actually an interesting and detailed procedure that needs explaining.

How Google works is the best explanation for students and teachers about how the webs number one tool actually works.  It uses animated diagrams and breaks each step down into a very simple information that anyone will understand and really highlights to students the amount of effort and 'nerdiness' that goes into locating your nearest take-away food store in 0.34342 seconds.

So take a look at it here with your students before you use it next time.



ICT / Computer Lesson ideas for every year level

These are a great collection of complete computer lesssons for every year level covering a masss of ICT activities.  Really Great stuff for Primary school here.  Check it out here.

How to use your ipod and iPhone in the classroom

here is a link to a good article about using iPod touch in the classroom.  Short and Sweet one today.  Have a good weekend

Excellent range of free software tutorials

If you want to learn how to use a new Web 2.0 tool or a new software program, sometimes there’s just no substitute for being shown what to do. However, while instructional videos can be great, it can be hard to know which one to choose. Who wants to wade through 10 minutes of poor quality video only to find it’s not what you wanted anyway! A search on popular video sharing sites won’t necessarily find what you’re looking for either … and certainly won’t tell you what’s good and what’s not. Enter Lookah.tv.

Lookah have done the hard work for you by collecting the best instructional videos about using popular software programs and Web 2.0 tools, and brought them together in one place. Every video has been watched and vetted by the site’s reviewers to ensure the quality and content make it one worth watching.

How can I use this in the classroom?  Lookah is a great tool for teachers who are not the worlds greatest experts on a particular piece of software.  It has specific tasks for each application on the site and each video is short sharp and to the point.  I would also recommend this for professional development for teachers also.

Hundred's of free SMARTboard lessons

Smarttech the worlds biggest supplier of interactive white boards have really dragged the chain on supplying quality educational support and resources for teachers to accompany their  boards and excellent notebook software suite.  Thankfully they have made some massive inroads to fixing this over the last 12 months offering free live online tutorials and updating their educational website with hundreds of free tools, lesson plans and video tutorials on how to use the board and accompanying software.

How can I use this in the calssrom?  You can search for lesson plans by subject area, grade levels and smarttech have ensured that these lesson plans fit within a number of national curriculum frameworks.  t caters for all levels of teacher expertise and I have found a number of excellent lesson ideas to use with my kids.  It is available here and it is definitely worth a look.