Here are a selection of links to education-related news articles from this week:

• Scrapping the 50% university student target – A report outlines why the government target of getting 50% of people under 30 into higher education should be scrapped.
• £10m lottery money to get students playing more sport – Universities are to be given lottery money to encourage students to get involved in sport.
• Anti-gang guidance offered to schools – Schools in England are to be given new guidance on how to spot signs that children are involved in gangs.
• More schools are failing Ofsted checks – Half of schools inspected under Ofsted’s new inspection regime were found to be satisfactory or inadequate.
• News Day involves 25,000 students – The largest number of schools ever took part in this week’s News Day.
• TV fills in for History lessons – David Dimbleby believes that history programmes on television are filling in the gaps in children’s historical knowledge.
• Bringing Shakespeare to life – English teachers will be encouraged to let pupils walk around the classroom rather than reading Shakespeare’s plays while sitting at their desks.
• They can’t read, can’t write, keep time or be tidy – One of the directors of Tesco gives their verdict about school leavers.

Are these types of posts useful / interesting? I’m considering making a regular round-up of the week’s education news. Please add your thoughts in the comments…

Image – Newspaper

I’ve been a user of Memiary for a long time now. I use the site to record five things that I’ve done / achieved / want to remember each day. I also use the tool in my classroom… as a class, we spend a few minutes at the end of each day recording five things that we have learned or discovered during that day. It’s a great way of reflecting on the children’s achievements and helping them to remember each day’s events. Every now and again, we look back through the things that we have recorded and discuss what we wrote. I also use the service to make a display which shows our ‘memiaries’.

edu.memiary.com

I am now pleased to announce that there is a new version of Memiary, especially for education, which is supported by Teaching Ideas. The site has a number of additional features:

• Teachers can set up an account for themselves, as well as having individual accounts for pupils, allowing students to record their own list of five memories / achievements. Teachers can then see what their children have recorded.
• Teachers can change the question… so you could ask your pupils “What did you learn today?”, “What did you achieve today?”, “What were you proud of today?” or another question of your choice.
• You can jump back to previous ‘memiaries’ using a date picker or the random date tool. This is great for browsing around what you have achieved in the past.
• You can embed a widget on your school website / VLE which shows the ‘memiaries’ that you have recorded. Obviously, this makes your the content of your memiaries public, so ensure that pupils are aware of the e-safety issues.

Existing users of Memiary can import their memories into the new educational version. If you haven’t tried out the site before, now is the perfect time to explore. It’s quick, easy and free to register.

What did you learn today?

Following the creation of the Teaching UK iPhone application, I decided to investigate other apps that might be useful for teachers and schools. As well as finding some wonderful new applications, I also found lots of really useful iPhone+education related sites:

• Educate 2.0 is an application for teachers, giving them access to timetables, student data, teaching strategies and elearning tools. Find out more in this Youtube video:

• World Maths Day 2010 has a dedicated application which you can use to practise your Maths skills.

• iPhone for Kids is a wonderful blog which shares ideas and advice for ‘iParents’… those parents who want to give children opportunities to use their iPhones. It shares useful applications and offers advice, much of which will also be helpful for teachers.
• The Random Activity Generator generates thousands of learning challenges for students to try. There are over 50,000 combinations of activities.

• There are lots of language applications which would be useful for MFL classes. Free French Tutor is the most popular free education app at the time of writing this, but lots of other language apps are available.
• Don’t forget that podcasts are also a wonderful teaching tool for pupils, whether you are making your own or downloading / listening to those made by others.
• I also use these applications in my own classroom occasionally:
  • Ambiance – An ‘environment enhancer’ which lets you find / download / play a wide range of audio which can be played whilst children are working, or to set the scene as part of role play / drama activities.
  • Announcer – A fun app which lets you play announcements by the voiceover man from lots of popular TV shows. Some of them are not appropriate for use in the classroom, but imagine your pupil’s surprise when they hear ‘Ladies and Gentlemen… please welcome… that’s right… fabulous’ (etc) played out occasionally through your classroom speakers when connected to an iPhone.
  
  • Memiary – We use the online version of Memiary to record five achievements every day. This app lets you record this information using your iPhone / iPod (I’m also helping to set up a version of Memiary especially for use in the classroom so look out for information about this soon!).
  • eduTecher – A wonderful tool which lets teachers find (and share) useful resources and web tools that can be used in the classroom.
• BullyingUK have an iPhone app which shares the latest advice from the site for teachers, parents and pupils.
• Many schools are now developing their own applications for teachers, parents and pupils to use. Take a look at this example from Porchester Junior school.
• EducationApps produce a selection of mobile applications for teachers and students. At present, these cover GCSE Geography and AS Level Economics.

• In the iTunes App store, remember that there is a section for Education applications. There is also a special ‘Apps for Kids’ area at the moment which is worth exploring.
• Don’t forget the ‘Interesting Ways to use an iPod Touch‘ presentation on Ideas to Inspire.
• Here’s a useful presentation which gives advice for managing the iPod Touch in the classroom. Thanks to Ian Williams for sharing this on Twitter.

• Macworld have a HUGE list of Education apps, which have all been rated and reviewed.
• John Johnston is involved in a project to use iPod Touches in the classroom. Find out more on his blog.
• Adrian Bruce has shared 16 applications that can be used to support Problem Solving. Brighthub also have a list of the Top 10 apps to use in Maths classes.
• Eric Sailers has also produced a fantastic list of apps that could be used in education:

• Claire Barnes has suggested Labyrinth and Labyrinth2 which allow you to develop levels on the website and then download them to the device. She also recommends mathemagics, brain exercise games, word games (e.g. Textropolis and Boggle) and MP3 stories which can be played using the iPod.
• Finally, here’s a wonderful concept called ‘Phone Book‘. I’m not sure when or even if it’s available to buy, but it made me smile:

UPDATE – An ‘iPod Touch Conference‘ took place recently, allowing educators to discuss the use of these devices in education. The accompanying web site has lots of useful information, videos, links and discussions which are worth exploring. One of these includes a link to Apple’s own PDF guide to using iPods and iTunes for teaching and learning. Thanks to Julian Coultas for bringing this to my attention.

UPDATE 2 – I’ve also discovered an amazing Google spreadsheet which lists useful apps for different curriculum areas.

UPDATE 3 – Since writing this post, our school has received six iPod Touches which I’m planning to use in my own classroom. I’ve posted some initial thoughts about this project in a mindmap and PrimaryPad. I would love to hear your thoughts about these.

Do you know any useful iPhone applications that can be used in the classroom? Please let us know in the comments…

The Health and Safety Executive is running a new campaign to reduce slips, trips and falls in the workplace. Throughout 2008-2009, across the Education sector in the UK, there were 948 major injuries and a further 1865 that resulted in workers having to take more than three days off work as a result of slips, trips and falls – resulting in costs in excess of £60million.

In response, the HSE has launched a new phase of its Shattered Lives campaign. As part of this, people can visit the Shattered Lives website for practical advice and guidance.

www.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives

On the website, people can find out information on how they can easily reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls in the classroom and see what other organisations have done.  Advice ranges from how to deal with spills and other slip risks, to the importance of using ladders correctly to reduce the risk of falling from height.

Cyberkidz is a Dutch ‘edutainment’ site with lots of educational games, covering Maths, Literacy, Geography, Art, Music and more. The games are sorted by subject and age range, suitable for children aged 4-11.

www.cyberkidz.net

The site has recently been translated into English, so even more children are now able to take advantage of these resources.

A new educational DVD has been produced to encourage children to speak up to their teacher if they are being bullied. Find out more at the related site or watch this Youtube video to see some clips from the DVD.

My Money is a £10 million investment by the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) to deliver joined up lessons on personal finance in schools until 2011. As you may be aware, one of the key outcomes of the Every Child Matters agenda is for young people to achieve Economic Wellbeing. A major contributor to this is their ability to have the skills, knowledge and attitudes to manage their personal finances successfully.

The My Money Mathematics Resources were launched recently and comprises six themes built around different practical aspects of money. They are:

Money…

• what is it? – local trading schemes leading to currency exchange
• earning it – the world of work and take home pays
• spending it – buying and running a car
• investing it – savings accounts and investing in shares
• risking it – gambling and fruit machines
• being enterprising with it – setting up an ice-cream business (geometric investigation)

Mathematical demand increases throughout each theme, from National Curriculum Level 1 (Entry Level 1) to National Curriculum Level 8 (GCSE Grade B+) but can be easily extended to challenge the brightest pupils. The activities have been designed to give teachers the freedom to create their own units of work, as recommended by National Strategies, but individual activities can also be used within discrete starter–main–plenary lessons.

Download the resources here.

The new primary curriculum, which becomes statutory from September 2011, is now online. Its aims are to enable all young people to become:

• successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve,
• confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives,
• responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.

http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/new-primary-curriculum/

Through the curriculum, children should develop the skills, attitudes and dispositions that they need to become well-rounded individuals and lifelong learners. These include literacy, numeracy and ICT capability, learning and thinking skills, and personal, social and emotional skills. There are also six areas of learning:

• Understanding the arts
• Understanding English, communication and languages
• Historical, geographical and social understanding
• Mathematical understanding
• Understanding physical development, health and wellbeing
• Scientific and technological understanding

Religious education is also a statutory subject, as it is in the current curriculum. However, there will also be a statutory requirement for all children to learn a modern foreign language. Dance, drama and citizenship also become part of the statutory curriculum through the new areas of learning.

Find out more at the New Primary Curriculum site.

Tony Crowley has created a number of career education publications which can be used by primary schools and younger secondary school pupils. They are freely downloadable and aim to support the government’s plans to bring certain aspects of careers education into primary schools.

The resources contain games, group activities, quizzes, questionnaires and worksheets. One of these documents is embedded below and the others can be downloaded here.

explore is a multimedia organization that documents leaders around the world who have devoted their lives to extraordinary causes. Their library consists of more than 250 original films and 30,000 photographs from around the world.

explore features a wide range of topics—from animal rights, health and human services, and poverty to the environment, education, and spirituality. Delivered in short, digestible bites, explore films appeal to viewers of all ages, from children learning about other cultures for the first time to adults looking for a fresh perspective on the world around them.

www.explore.org

The resources are well suited to supplement many types of lesson plans, from presentations on multiculturalism to interactive classes on environmental and wildlife preservation. Films range in length from minute-long segments to longer documentary pieces on a particular region (e.g., China, India, the Arctic).

The site’s FAQ explains that ‘the explore team is currently developing a set of academic curricula that incorporates some of our content’ so look out for some useful teaching resources linked to their work.