I love technology. It is constantly evolving and offering all of us new opportunities for learning and teaching. I admit that it’s sometimes very difficult to switch off my tech lust button but where possible I try to take a more pragmatic approach, my limited purchasing power dictating. Gadgets, despite their often seductive beauty, are […]
For the last couple of years I’ve being out of the mainstream classroom and thus had fallen out of touch with using the IWB for whole class teaching. I soon got back into the swing of things and recalled how helpful Folens Online and CJFallon’s Digital Hub are in having the curriculum books available for
Whole class teaching using IWB Read More »
Last week saw the publication of the OFSTED report “The most able students: are they doing as well as they should in our non-selective secondary schools?” . It concluded that bright students in the UK were being failed by those secondary schools who chose not to stream students early according to ability. The report showed
Great Expectations Read More »
As more and more of my own reading material moves from traditional hardback and paperback texts to electronic format, one application that I make increasing use of is that of Calibre. Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/) is a free, cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) application that allows you to view, convert, create and manage e-books. The software supports e-book
E-book Management, Conversion and Creation with Calibre Read More »
Everyone in education is talking about tablet computing. The days of comparing the various quirks of Interactive Whiteboards has ended and teachers are looking at the next big thing. At second level, tablets are an ideal technology resource, even if they simply just replace the textbook. However, at primary level, where we’re not so stuck
Tablets: Is the future Microsoft? Read More »
Those involved in distance education struggled for many years to interact in live settings with their learners. Distance education is with us since the 1890s while the Open University (OU) created its first online course in 1988. The Internet has done a great deal to transform how learners can now learn at a distance. One
Scoilnet Maps is now available in all primary and post-primary schools on the Schools Broadband Network and can also be accessed from home by means of a teacher scoilnet account. It now features a comprehensive range of Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) maps, world maps and lots of GIS data that can be viewed as “layers”
Storing data on the ‘Cloud’ is encouraged as a convenient and easy way to access data on any computer/laptop that has internet access. It is common for teachers to use dropbox, skydrive and Google Drive to save plans and other data relevant to school. Teachers and school management must realise that the “schools, as is
Data Protection and laptop security Read More »
This year our fourth class pupils displayed their science project on pulley systems at the RDS Primary Science Fair. The Primary Science Fair is run alongside the secondary school Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2013 in the RDS every January and is a great opportunity for the pupils to display their work and be inspired
RDS Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2013 Read More »
The “Make Coding Compulsory in Schools” debate has been simmering gently over the last year both in Ireland and the UK as we move towards a new definition of digital literacy. No longer is it enough that users simply “use” technology effectively, the new digital literacy calls for users to become developers of their own
Should Coding be made Compulsory in Irish Schools? Read More »