Technology for Learning Blog

If you are using Edpuzzle with your students (or are interested in using it) then this information is for you:

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we have gone ahead and granted Pro access to your school until the end of July. All registered teachers with a verified email address are already upgraded.

• Any other teacher in your school who hasn't been upgraded or hasn't registered to Edpuzzle yet, can log in or sign up through this link and will get automatically upgraded: https://edpuzzle.com/schools/join/nbq5rc

I'm often asked which laptop should I buy for my son or daughter, and/or should I buy a Mac or Windows device. Here is my usual answer...

Check these sites first if you have a device or budget in mind:

https://www.productchart.com/laptops/

Have you been in a situation, like me earlier this week, when one of your children comes home with a book you are not familiar with? Books are not like movies; they don’t necessarily come with an age rating. Publishers don’t list the objectionable content on the back of the book, in the copyright statement, or even on their website. Some books will include an age recommendation on the inside front jacket flap, but that’s rare. Often, you’ll find the lines between middle grade books (ages 9-12), young adult book (ages 12-18), and adult books become blurry. So what to do? Other than reading the book yourself, or asking our friendly and knowledgeable librarians, there are some places you can go for help:

A short one from me this week. Thanks to Miss Kim in Year 2 for passing this onto me. As a parent, you can register at the Oxford Owl website for free https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/user/sign_up.html and then explore the vast number of e-books they have released temporarily.

It’s a read-aloud opportunity not to be missed.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Dear Colleagues

I hope you’re all safe and well. Some tech related updates from me:

• All: Kahoot! Premium: use this link to access the premium features for free to the end of term
• Secondary: within the iTeacher app (school code: PAT) you’ll now see that, in any double period, the second period is by default registered when you take the register for the first period:
• All: If you regularly take screen shots and annotate them then try Screenshot. It’s like your regular snipping tool on steroids. The shortcut keys will save you time
• All: MS Teams updates: we should be seeing the 3x3 grid view of students and the virtual hands up arriving over the next couple of days – fingers crossed