Adding new students to the 'Student Domain'

It was decided at our last ICT meeting that I would prepare brief instructions on how to log onto the server remotely when you are in either of the Computer Rooms and add the new 1st year students to the student.net domain.

Please note the following steps:

1. On the admin desktop, click on the remote desktop link. This will bring you live onto the student server.
2. On the server desktop, look for the 'Active Directory Users and Computers' icon and click it.
3. To add a new student scroll to the bottom of the list until you see either 'template' or 'student' and right click it, then select 'Copy'. This will open up an input window.
4. Fill in the students details and then submit it.
5. Repeat this for each new user.

New Gadgets that work!

Well it's gas that when the summer comes and we should stop thinking of the education establishments we work in, I actually find myself coming more in contact with the technical side of the schools operations. I fidget with the website, clean it up a bit add and subtratct from it and scan other school websites to see if they have something we should have! Well at least I am honest!

So this year I have added three things which I feel are necessary.
1. A bulletin board on which the students and their parents can sell their wares like schoolbooks and school equipment they are finished with. So far it has attracted about 40 users with some trading going on!
2. A fully functional room booking portal through which all teachers (whom I had to register myself) can see the present state of bookings and can book either of the two ICT labs, the Library, the Demo Room, and either of the two mobile ICT labs. I managed to find one that was open source!! Yippee!
3. A simple feed burner that carries the headlines of our online school newsletter on the front page of our school website. Mind you the ould newsletter needs a body now to tend to it as the last entry was sometime in 2009.

And it's only the middle of July!

Audacity Tutorials

For those of you who have the school podcast as part of your TY or LCA brief, then this is a must read (well view actually) before you delve in. Visit http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/17-audacity-tutorial.htm for all kinds of tutorials covering many different aspects of the open source God-send!!

Introducing Moodle!

Ok folks, after seven months of use I can now announce that there is nothing to be afraid of! It's fantastic and opens up so any other avenues in teaching and learning that have great benefits for all. I have used it with my first year science class and it has become my interactive textbook!! More imagination needed to it's use for mathematics but at the moment I use it for uploading end of chapter tests and their solutions so that the students can engage in some autonomous learning. I also utilise it to post up solutions / more detailed explanations for those students who may require them.

By the way it is worth pointing out that the solutions / explainations / marking schemes et al are created using a word processor package like Writer or Word along with Geogebra and MathType. It is the essential tool box for all maths teachers who are serious about using the net to distribute notes / solutions / worked answers and animated tutorials. If there is any other freeware or open source software that can be used for teaching Maths through ICT that one should add to the toolbox, then let me know. By the way I am interested in tools / software that allows you to create your own materials more so than software the offers a prepacked solution that you have to follow. Oh and Wolfram Alpha is wicked but a little too good in that it gives the solution to all problems in somewhat easy to follow steps. A students dream for having the computer do your homework so lets keep quiet about it in the classroom for the moment.

Yes there is an initial outlay in respect of time, but I would suggest that you begin by looking at moodle as a permanent resting home for your existing resources and bit by bit increase your adventurous nature, click some other buttons and see what some of the other functions can do for you.

There is a site that you can visit that gives many video tutorials on various aspects of the moodle experience. they are easy to follow and should have you up and running in no time.

The site is located at http://www.moodletutorials.org/ so delve in and enjoy.

List of freeware & almost freeware for educational purposes

From day to day I often wonder about exactly how much of the freebies on offer are of any use to teachers.

Having found some pretty decent downloadable freeware programs over the years and having used them I am in a big zone of safety.

As I browse the net and look at ICT in Education blogs from about the world, I am constantly reminded fo how these once downloadable applications are now being offered as live and online without the need for any downloads! Sounds great and I really want to embrace this modus operandi, but I have a very deep unease within me about how fragile these sites might actually be. Day by day I expect them to fold even moreso now in these recessionary times. I hope I am proved wrong.

With the freeware & downloadable options like Gradeway Teacher's Suite once you have it, you have it forever with no worries about when it might disappear.

I am slowly falling in love with three online freeware applications that just have to be used by teachers who are seriousabout integrating ICT into all aspects of learning. Of course there are more applications I already use on a daily basis like the Moodle and the subject / department blog but these three newbies are entertaining me greatly.

1. Engrade - www.engrade.com

A wonderful way to record and keep track of student assessments and tests. Fully customisable and totally online it is the easiest way for teachers to have a gradebook in operation. Like Moodle, your students have to register for your class and once registered a generates access code is given to them so that they have access 24/7 to their academic history and performance. It also prints out individual student reports that can be reviewed at a parent-teacher meeting and then given to the parents to take away for their own files. This is usually greeted with significant levels of thanks and praise!! Let's face it Teacher need that stuff every now and again.

2. PlanbookEdu - www.planbookedu.com

Great for having an online lesson planner. Comes free with basic functionality but for $20 you have full functionality for a year. Now that to me is a little more secure than freeware but pricewise it is a close to freeware as you will get for something that is as good as this. You can attach files to various different lessons and use the calendar to plan ahead on the academic year. I like the fact also that you can print your plan book straight from the browser.

By the way I have paid the €14 for a years access! Cheap at half the price says me.

3. Bambuster - www.bambuser.com

A very nice way to get your videos up online as they happen! Don't know what the ICT policy has to say about live streaming recordings from your classrom but I think it is a great way to keep kids who are absent informed as to what is going on. Omagine being able to sign in to your Maths class from the sick bed and keep an eye on proceedings.

More importnatly you are building up valuable resources if there are topics like those in organic chemistry that are too time consuming or glassware intensive for general experimentation. next best thing is a recording from the lab of a demonstration of said experiment.

Need to practice on this one so will have a look at it here again later.

Online Moodle Setup

Again I have been looking for this type of solution for ages! Now that it is here, I can definitely justify spending the few quid for the schools benefit. must remember to look again at all these options in September as I am still on holidays and should not be thinking of school things a this time :)

Have a look at http://sqooltools.com/index.html

Free Flash Cards

This site looks quite good. Helps to make flash cards for revision with a few clicks. Visit http://cobocards.com/ and see for yourself.