MinecraftEdu is a special edition of Mojang’s original Minecraft developed by TeacherGaming LLC in Finland in 2011. It has been used in thousands of classrooms in 40 countries all around the globe. At the heart of any MinecraftEdu classroom setup is the MinecraftEdu server. A separate server license is required for each classroom using MincraftEdu for pupils working […]
We have purchased two Raspberry Pi starter kits and are looking to get programming with Scratch on them with some boys from fifth and sixth class. We are going to hook the Raspberry Pi devices up to old PC monitors and use the Scratch, which comes with OS to develop our programming skills. The board
Lego recently launched WeDo 2.0, a robot based learning system designed for Primary schools. The system includes the ever familiar Lego brick, some absolutely amazing software and a wide range of projects designed to teach scientific skills. WeDo 2.0 is intrinsically linked to the U.S STEM core curriculum standards but that shouldn’t deter Irish Primary
BETT 2016 – Some Reflections A new year and many Irish educators made the trek to the BETT Show in London and it is a trek by the time you get to the Excel Arena, down in the Docklands. Though the 2016 show came to a close on January 23rd the organisers are already focused
BETT 2016 – Some Reflections Read More »
Over the last twelve months or so in a number of postings we have followed Promethean’s developments with ClassFlow – their cloud based lesson preparation and assessment toolkit. Readers who have been followed my postings in November 2014, December 2014, January 2015 and June 2015 will recall that Promethean have been updating their versions of
ClassFlow – Updated for Mobile Browsers Read More »
Last Thursday as I pondered which path my school would take on it’s way to getting the Digital Schools of Distinction Award, I received a phone call from a parent informing me that a number of pupils in one of the senior classes were accessing pornography on their mobile phones outside of school. Now despite
Safer Internet Day 2016 Read More »
Finally it’s a reality; a reality that carries a side bar of lots and lots of “No’s”! Light speed broadband with no bottlenecks, no copper cables, no long download times, no live-streaming lags and no other nationwide roll out anywhere else in Europe!Siro is now delivering a total fibre to building solution to a select
Bedtime Math is a Mathematics story based resource for parents and children that is aimed to foster parent/child interactions around Mathematics in the home. The resource has been developed by the Bedtime Math Foundation (a non profit making organisation funded by private donations) founded by Laura Bilodeau Overdeck. Laura aims to make Maths as playful
Having started in a new school in September I was bursting to share my ideas with the pupils and staff on blogging, Mission V, scratch programming, Khan Academy and a host of other I.C.T. ideas for the pupils to enjoy. Unfortunately, when we turned on the thirty new laptops and they all logged onto the
The Department of Education and Skills (DES) recently launched their Digital Strategy for Schools, 2015-2020; Enhancing Teaching, Learning and Assessment. This is the latest in a series of strategies and policy statements since December 1997 when the Department launched Schools IT2000. I have to declare up-front that I was involved the creation of both documents.
The Digital Strategy for Schools Read More »
