Purple Mash is one of my favourite tools for pupils. It provides a huge collection of online resources that children can use to develop their ICT skills and extend their learning in different areas of the curriculum.

The site has recently had a makeover which makes it much easier to use. There are now clear themed areas which give you access to a selection of different online activities for particular topics. You can also choose activities by age range.

The team at 2Simple always work really hard and add new activities to the site on a regular basis. There are a number of free resources on the site, but I think that the subscription price is great value for money when you consider the huge range of content available… which children can access at school and at home! Take a look…

2Simple have been busy over the summer holidays making lots of great resources for schools to use:

• New blog – 2Simple Talk is a new blog which is a place to find the latest 2Simple updates, as well as free ideas for using their tools in your classroom.

www.2simpletalk.com

• Back to School resources – The team have created new apptivities which can be used at the start of a new academic year. These include Pupil Profiles, School Lists and Summer Holiday reports.
• New presentation – A new collaborative presentation has also been started, allowing teachers to share their ideas for using the Purple Mash tools in the classroom. The presentation is available on Ideas to Inspire.

What’s your favourite 2Simple resource?

Here is a collection of links to some new ideas and resources that I’ve discovered from my fantastic Twitter network recently:

• Math Live – Lots of engaging animations and interactive tools to support the teaching of different Maths concepts (shared by @kvnmcl)

• Purple Mash – 2Simple have announced their new ‘mash-up of creative tools and curriculum focused applications’. The children at my school love 2Simple’s Online Tools, so I’m really excited about seeing this new tool released.
• Learn Your Tables – Free resources to support the learning of multiplication tables, suggested by @tombarrett.
• What happens when a balloon explodes? –  A super slow motion video to show your class, shared by @cthomas18.
• Zuitube – A collection of online videos for children. Suggested by @AngelaMaiers.
• Paper Models of Polyhedra – Printable nets for every 3D shape you could even need. Suggested by @willie42.
• Shapes – An Interactive tool giving information about 2D and 3D shapes. This also has printable nets to download. Shared by @willie42.

• Terry Freedman has published his ‘Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book‘. This free guide contains a considerable number of projects, contributed by teachers, that you can try in your own classroom.

Don’t miss the previous posts in this series:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three

Image – Twitter Logo Map 09

BETT, the ‘world’s largest educational technology event’ took place last week and I was very lucky to be able to spend a few days there. Here are some of the things that I discovered:

• Anithings – A ‘creativity tool’ which lets children create animations by simply dragging objects around on screen. It costs £250 for a site licence, but there is a 10% discount during January.

• Interactive Resources – This company makes the (extremely useful) Maths Packs, Teaching materials and Primary Games which can be used on interactive whiteboard and / or individual computers. During BETT, I was given a quick tour of the new online version of their site, allowing teachers (and pupils) to access the resources online at home and school. Teachers can also filter all of the resources by subject / topic and allocate activities to students who can try them when they next log in.
• Story Stage – I watched a demo of this software from Scholastic and was really impressed at the ability to connect multiple mice to the same computer, allowing children to work collaboratively. Why doesn’t all software allow multiple users like Story Stage?

• Smart – It was nice to hear about the release of Smart Notebook 10.6 (available now) which brings compatibility with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard on the Mac. It also has a ‘transparent’ tool which makes the Smart Notebook interface disappear, as well as a number of new Maths tools.
• 2Simple – I managed to get a final copy of 2Create a SuperStory, as well as trials of 2Assess ICT and the Online Tools. I’m really impressed with the potential of the online tools, allowing children to use creative software at home and school and save their work to an online storage area. Anthony Evans showed me 2Design&Make (built into the online tools) to make some fantastic 3D models.

• Linkbun.ch – Allows you to share lots of links with one small link which can then be shared via email / Twitter etc. Thanks to @ianyorston for sharing this gem.
• Stupflix – This looks a little like Animoto (as both allow you to combine audio / photos / video) but Stupeflix seems to have more customisation options. Shared by @digitalmaverick.

• Dabbleboard – An online collaborative whiteboard. I’ve used Dabbleboard at home once or twice, but never in the classroom. @bevevans22 talked about this during a Teachmeet Takeover session and I can definitely see it being a valuable addition to a lesson.
• Scratch – Scratch is a programming language which I’ve always thought was a bit complicated. However, @mberry gave us all an entertaining 7 minute demonstration of the program and made it all look incredibly easy. Downloading and trying Scratch is now high up on my ‘to do’ list.

• Newseum - @digitalmaverick mentioned this during his Teachmeet Takeover session about Glogster. The Front pages section lets you view the front pages of a huge collection of newspapers from around the world.
• Class blogging - Oliver Quinlan gave a really inspiring presentation about his class blogs and how time is given for the children to respond to each others’ blog posts. We regularly post items on our school website / blog but children rarely have time to add their own thoughts… something that is sure to change now!

Did you go to BETT? What did you discover?

Lots of primary schools in the UK use software by 2Simple. They offer a wide range of ICT tools which are incredibly simple and easy to use, whilst offering lots of creative opportunities. The company have just set up a blog which is worth following if you use their software.

http://2simpleblog.wordpress.com/

The blog has examples of the programs being used by children, ideas for activities to try, as well as sneaky peeks at up and coming developments.

As the title of this post suggests, I wasn’t able to go to BETT 2009 for one reason or another, although I have been going annually for the past eight years. However, this didn’t mean that I wasn’t able to learn about some of the new developments being shown off, or hear from those who actually were at the event.

So what did I discover from ‘visiting’ at a distance?

2DIY – This new software was something that I really would have liked to have seen first-hand at the show. It allows primary children to make their own Flash resources, interactive games, puzzles and quizzes. Anthony Evans has made some examples here.

New Senteo software - Danny Nicholson mentioned that v2 of the Senteo voting software was available in one of his blog posts. As a Senteo user at school, I’ve downloaded this at home over the weekend so that I can try it out before installing it in my classrooms.

Interactive tables - The Microsoft Surface and Smart Table were both at the show, and it would have been nice to be able to see them in action. While it might be a while before we see these in classrooms, it’s certainly interesting thinking about how they might be used in the future.

Teachmeet – This fantastic meeting of teachers and others involved in education is a great way of sharing what people are actually doing in the classroom. With lots of short presentations, there were a wide range of ideas shared which others can then take away and try for themselves. I was able to watch the Teachmeet via a live video stream, so didn’t miss out too much here (apart from the free beer).

Photoshop Tennis - One of the highlights of the Teachmeet evening was Photoshop Tennis, where students start by editing a given image using Photoshop (or other similar editing software). The new image is then edited by another pupil and this continues. There are some examples on the Flickr group. Since hearing about it, I’ve been wondering how a similar activity could be tried in a primary classroom, using some of the drawing packages available to us.

Admittedly, I would have learned about a whole lot more had I actually gone to the show, and I missed all of the seminars and presentations. However, by posting online, those who were at the show filtered through a lot of the information from the exhibition and highlighted the best bits for those of us who couldn’t make it. Thanks everyone!

There were a number of tools which helped me to find out about all of this:

1) Twitter – A large number of my Twitter friends did get to BETT and there were tweets galore about the things that they saw, heard and found. Using Tweetdeck, I was able to run a search for ‘#bett09′ and as people posted messages about the things that were going on, they popped up on my screen. The Teachmeet event on the Friday evening also had it’s own hashtag (#tmbett09) and as the event progressed, people posted their thoughts and experiences using that tag to make searching for their thoughts easier.

2) Blog posts – Lots of blogs mentioned the new things that people had seen at BETT. Using mobile technology a number of people managed to blog as they were going around the exhibition.

3) Live video – The Teachmeet event was broadcast live over the Internet, using Flashmeeting, Qik and Ustream. I watched most of the Ustream because it seemed to have better quality sound. Thanks to the person who set this up, as I didn’t see who was running it.

It was great to be able to read, see and hear people’s reflections of BETT as it was happening. However, I think that I really would like to go again next year and see things first hand. If I’m able to, I’d also love to make it to my first Teachmeet!

Image: ‘BETT in toy town tiltshift stylee!‘