School Tech News Archive

Becta Online Lesson Plans (UK)

(Friday 29th June 2007)
Formerly a weekly email service for primary teachers which offered lesson plans featuring ICT in activities based on six subject strands. The service is now discontinued but you can view the lesson plans in this archive, and access the associated resources. (Thanks to Janine Turner for sharing this resource!)

Google Earth Pro - Free for Educators

(Thursday 28th June 2007)
If you have been exploring some of the classroom possibilities available using Google Earth, you may know that the Pro version includes many enhanced features and plugins. Currently being offered free for educators, for 2 computers in your school.

PDFLab (Mac)

(Thursday 28th June 2007)
Split and join PDF documents as well create PDF documents out of several images.

Imagination Cubed

(Tuesday 26th June 2007)
Try this online whiteboard, then invite a friend to collaborate in the creation of a drawing. Check through the menus for access to text, colours, saving options, etc. Donationware.

Apple iPhone Ads

(Tuesday 26th June 2007)
Looks pretty good - will it be the next "must have" gadget?

Mac OSX 10.4.10 Update

(Friday 22nd June 2007)
Includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes or compatibility updates for a variety of 3rd party applications and technologies.

Collie On The Move

(Thursday 21st June 2007)
Collie the garden gnome is taking time out to visit his Grandma Giggle Gumps who lives far, far away. He will have to use 10 different types of transport to visit Grandma, because she lives so far away. Which will be the best ones for him to use? (Starts 6th August - This interactive module has been designed to support Stage 1 HSIE Transportation. The suggested Learning Sequence activities meet the outcomes for ENS1.6 and SSS1.7.)

Pluzzle (Mac)

(Thursday 21st June 2007)
A little blast from the past - a free draggable tile puzzle. You can use your own pictures, change the size of the puzzle, etc. From the creators of Comic Life.

Manorbrook Primary School

(Wednesday 20th June 2007)
Located in Bristol in the UK, Manorbrook PS has created their school website using the free Google Page Creator (a Web 2.0 technology). See also some other examples of education-related sites created using Web 2.0 tools.

Parallels 3.0

(Tuesday 19th June 2007)
The latest update includes over 50 new features, including SmartSelect, Snapshots, and 3D graphics, plus improved support for USB devices.

Scratch (Mac/Win)

(Monday 18th June 2007)
Developed at MIT, Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. As they create Scratch projects, young people (ages 8 and up) learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design. Free. (See also: Scratch for Educators | Scratch Video - mp4, 60Mb)

Beenleigh State School - Online Activities

(Thursday 14th June 2007)
Stacks of activities for K-6. Phonics activities, online story reading, audio books, etc, plus lots of links to other related sites.

Safari 3 (Beta ) for Mac and Windows

(Tuesday 12th June 2007)
Pre-Leopard release of Safari 3. Now available for Windows too!

New school computers use chips off the old block (SMH)

(Monday 11th June 2007)
"State school students will be saddled with new computers described by experts as old technology, slow and a 'dog of a product' - and they'll have to use them for at least four years. The Iemma Government is under fire over the purchase of 160,000 computers for schools, TAFE and offices."

auDA Panel Releases Issues Paper for Public Comment

(Wednesday 6th June 2007)
Be part of the process..... auDA is currently reviewing the policy governing .au domain names, including - "whether .au should be opened up to direct registrations (eg. domainname.au); whether the policy rules for domain names should be changed; whether registrants should be allowed to sell their .au domain names". The panel has released an Issues Paper, which sets out the current situation and invites comment on suggestions and options for change. You can comment on the issues discussed in the paper, before Friday 15th June. (For some background reading see also Master of their Domains - SMH)

ARIN Resolution re Internet Address Availability

(Wednesday 6th June 2007)
Some interesting background reading for the techos - according to the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) we will have run out of available IP numbers by 2010.

ICT Co-ordinator Meetings This Week

(Monday 4th June 2007)
Keep up-to-date with the latest school technology information by attending you local meeting (Wollongong/Shoalhaven/Highlands). Includes a presentation about the School ICT Planning Workbook, and latest Sentral modules for managing school data.

DET Contract Specs Online (DET Intranet)

(Monday 4th June 2007)
The specifications of the "IBM compatible" computers to be supplied to NSW DET schools, as part of the "whole of department" contract, have been announced. (Further details available in InPrincipal.) (Why is this information on the DET Software site, rather than the Hardware site, or T4L site???)

DG Complete Content Filter (Mac)

(Monday 4th June 2007)
Dave Lopata's DG Complete is a neat one-click installation package of DansGuardian, the leading Internet content filtering software, and Squid proxy server software, with an integrated configuration console. If you have a spare old Mac, DG Complete makes a great filter to keep the kids out of trouble on your home network. (Download the 16Mb DG Complete package at Dave's OSX Downloads page.)