Northern Grid for Learning - School Broadband, eSafety, Learning Resources and More
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Northern Grid - BT New Service Provider15 February 2012
We look forward to working with BT to maintain and further develop our broadband and services. More detailed information will be coming soon but if you need more information now, please get in contact with the office or fill out an Expression of Interest form
Building Our First Mobile App14 February 2012For winning one of our Teacher Awards last year, Stephen Ainsley from Harton Technology College in South Shields asked for us to develop a mobile app (specifically an iOS app originally) for the school. Stephen wanted an app version of their school planner – in other words, a digital version of a homework tracker, timetable viewer and school information database. This article is intended to briefly cover the route we took when developing our first mobile application. The ChoicesThere are quite a few methods for developing mobile apps and during the planning stages of this project I had a look at the following: A Native AppBuilding a native mobile app for each system you're developing for (Using Xcode for Apple devices, the Android SDK for Android devices etc). Pros
Cons
I had only very briefly experimented with Xcode and it had quite a steep learning curve. It became apparent that it would take quite a long time to reach the necessary skill-level required for this project.
A HTML5 Mobile Framework (Sencha Touch)I then stumbled upon an interesting JavaScript framework called Northern Grid nominated Woodlawn after they won the Northern Grid Overall Excellence Award last year so it's great to see they've got through the next stage. Congratulations to Simon Ripley and his staff. Congratulations are also due to Ricky Brown and 'Space to Learn' in Hartlepool as they have also been shortlisted in the 'Collaborative Group Project' section of the awards. We are keeping our fingers crossed that they will be announced winners at the NAACE conference in March. Schools are increasingly using digital resources and applications, not just as users of other people's materials but as creators of new materials and applications as well. Copyright plays a significant part across the curriculum and in schools' wider community activities: 'Copy Rights and Wrongs' brings together information about copyright and licensing from a school's point of view with introductions to the UK regulations, school licences, open licences such as 'Creative Commons', and how they work for schools... The Early Surfers’ Zone is designed for the parents and carers and educators of 3-7 year olds, to help introduce young children to the idea of internet safety, in an age-appropriate, fun and engaging way. The site introduces the character of Smartie the Penguin, who learns to be safe online, by asking his family for help whenever anything happens to make him feel upset, confused or worried. The resources include a new printable E-book, accompanying questions for discussion (for parents / carers / school staff who are reading the story), a lesson plan with relevant curriculum links, and subsequent follow-up activity ideas for children to complete at home. There is also an art gallery for children to submit their posters and creative work. The new resources can be found at Kidsmart website, where you now have the chance to select resources for Foundation Stage KS1 and KS2 children. Mick - mick.young@northerngrid.org A Vital and Northern Grid partnership CPD event, made possible by the unstoppable enthusiasm of Bill Lord, Learning and Teaching Consultant, CfBT Lincolnshire. It was way back in the summer of 2011, in the Northern Grid offices, we first discussed the idea of offering a course on creative approaches to developing key stage 2 literacy skills. Bill Lord’s enthusiasm for, and deep understanding of, literacy issues and strategies, alongside the boundless optimism and creativity of Vital’s Steve Bunce ensured that we could develop a CPD event that would be engaging and effective. Bill, who is currently working with the Learning and Teaching team in Lincolnshire Local Authority, created a ‘Cluedo’ style narrative which would form the basis for the successful half day CPD... Young Science Investigators: Project Kit also includes home-based activities and lesson plans, providing the flexibility to be used in and out of the classroom. Supporting parents’ notes are provided. The YSI: Project Kit is part of the Young Science Investigators (YSI) suite of resources. The Young Science Investigators are Beepy, Dev and Kate. Together they help pupils aged 7-11 learn about Science through fun, engaging, pupil-centred experiments and activities. All these curriculum resources are free. Try out the resource now – the first 5000 teachers can order a free set of three... TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader and there are thousands of videos to inspire, motivate and engage. Some of the talks may act as springboards for teachers to develop and further their own ideas while others will engage and stimulate many of our learners in our schools. TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader and there are thousands of videos to inspire, motivate and engage. Some of the talks may act as springboards for teachers to develop and further their own ideas while others will engage and stimulate many of our learners in our schools. Cloud based storage and online synchronisation offers individuals many benefits, one of which is removing the need to carry flash pens and portable disks around. The question that needs to be asked is what issues are raised by this increasingly popular and free service. Google Apps and Live@Edu have storage space available as part of their email offering. An increasingly popular trend is synchronising online storage. Dropbox and SugarSync are currently two of the more popular. The services mentioned are all available at no charge but with limits be it limited storage, non-existent Service level agreements or limited control over the functionality or how it changes. The main concern with Dropbox is the significant risk of breaching the Data Protection Act. Staff wishing to store personal information should not use a service that does not comply with the EU Safe Harbor agreement. The EU Safe Harbor agreement requires that personal data is stored in the EU or in other countries where we have set agreements. Dropbox is hosted in the US is non-compliant! There are also security issues with free services, in June 2011 Dropbox confirmed that a programmer’s error caused a temporary security breach that allowed any password to be used to access any user account. If you decide to use this service it’s highly recommended you encrypt your files prior to synchronisation. IE9 is the most secure and best performing Microsoft browser it therefore is recommended that schools upgrade. Websites designed for earlier versions may not display correctly to resolve use a feature called Compatibility View. To ensure IE9 can view all webpages correctly an icon titled compatibility view has been added. The icon normally looks like The new format of the ICT Support Seminar (formerly known as the Technical Seminar) has been designed with LA and School input to include topics of current debate and interest regarding ICT in Education, from purchasing technical solutions to utilising existing resources, sharing best practice to supporting embedding of ICT across the curriculum. It is expected that the topics presented on (by IT practitioners and leaders from LAs and Schools as well as industry partners) will lead to group discussions with new topics of interest for discussion being identified for future events by the attendees themselves. It is also intended that future seminars will change geographical location around the region. This seminar would therefore benefit not only network managers and ICT support staff but also bursars and school management. As space will be limited please ensure you book your place in advance by completing the booking form and either email it to natasha.tindle@northerngrid.org or fax it to 0191 4611833. How do NG & Network Managers engage SLTs: TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader and there are thousands of videos to inspire, motivate and engage. Some of the talks may act as springboards for teachers to develop and further their own ideas while others will engage and stimulate many of our learners in our schools. TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader and there are thousands of videos to inspire, motivate and engage. Some of the talks may act as springboards for teachers to develop and further their own ideas while others will engage and stimulate many of our learners in our schools. We’ll publish all the images that are suitable, i.e. are good high resolution images that are appropriate to the theme and are suitable for inclusion on an educational site. And each term, for each theme, we’ll nominate the best image per age group to go forward to the national final. Each finalist will receive a large, high quality, framed print of their image. |
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Northern Grid signed a contract yesterday (14th February 2012) with BT to provide broadband to Northern Grid schools for the next five years.
Also labeled: 
www.copyrightsandwrongs.nen.gov.uk
The Young Science Investigators (YSI): Project Kit
Each term we are looking for images based on one or two of the themes and we are asking you and your students to take and upload images based on those themes.
