On Monday, the Telegraph published an education wish list for 2012. This includes the hopes and dreams of different people involved in education. Some of their ideas include:

• The abolition of school exams,
• Trusting teachers more, especially with the teaching of reading to younger children,
• Changes to teachers’ contracts and requiring them to show how they had improved things each year,
• More outreach and work experience opportunities for students,
• Month-long sabbaticals for teachers in leadership roles every seven years.

What is your wish for this year? How would you like to change things in your own classroom or school, or even for education across the country in 2012? Share your thoughts in the comments below…

I often receive emails from developers of education apps, so I thought that it might be useful to share some of the fantastic applications that are being created to support learning:

1) Happi Spells - ”Happi Spells” is a crossword spelling game where children can practice spelling by dragging letter tiles on to 48 different mini crossword puzzles. Compete for “snails” and try to improve your own high score!

2) I Learn With – Languages! - A fun educational game to help children aged from 3 to 7 years old  to learn their first words and short sentences in a foreign language. Find out more in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

3) DK The Human Body App – An amazing application with clear information and incredible illustrations which helps you to learn about the human body.

4) Sing your times tables with Percy Parker – I’ve used this app in school a number of times and the children love singing along and learning their multiplication tables with Percy!

5) Healthy Star - The Healthy Star is a short introduction for young children, to the world of affirmations and enriches them with positive thoughts. The story includes simple relaxation exercises.

6) Edmodo – Teachers and students can stay connected to the fantastic Edmodo system using this iPhone and iPad app.

7) How to Make Origami – This app includes step by step instructions with 3D animations of paper folding to help you learn how to create amazing origami!

8 ) Eggs on Legs – Primary Games make lots of great interactive whiteboard software which I use at school regularly. They are also now developing iOS apps which look great!

9) Jungle Time – Learning how to tell the time can be a difficult concept for some children. This app helps children with their understanding and it can test them too!

10) Formative Feedback for Learning – An app that allows students to receive feedback on their performances in a wide range of curriculum areas. Find out more in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

11) Story Builder – Can your children finish these story starter ideas?

12) Math Formulas – A guide to Maths formulae with information and examples. The topics covered include algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, probability and statistics.

13) Britannica Kids (Ancient Rome) – Explore the history of Ancient Rome with the images, games and activities in this iPhone / iPod / iPad app.

14) GeoGame World Series - An educational geography game with lots of different options and challenges. Find out more in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

15) TED – The TED talks are always enjoyable and inspirational… they cover a wide range of topics and you can access all of them through this great iOS app.

16) Fishy Numbers – A fun game which is designed to help primary school children with their mental addition skills. Find more educational apps by this developer at www.primaryapps.co.uk.

Which iOS apps do you use in your classroom?

The iPhone / iPod / iPad App Store has over 300,000 apps, and over 10% are education apps. Finding useful education apps can be a difficult for teachers so a new site has recently launched which aims to help with this. Apps in Education is ‘strictly dedicated to discovering educational apps that inspire and engage learning.’

The creators are hoping that the site will be the premier destination of educators and parents looking for education apps for their iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone and other mobile devices. Visit the site at www.appsineducation.com and follow them on Twitter too.

Purpos/ed has been developed by a group of people involved in education. Their aim is to kickstart a debate around the question: What’s the purpose of education? The site has started the debate by encouraging people to write 500 words about the purpose of education on their own blogs. Lots of people have already contributed their thoughts and you can browse through their articles here.

Why not write a post about this yourself? You can also subscribe to the weekly newsletter and follow Purpos/ed on Twitter.

Lucky Gecko Apps are a relative new company who have developed two educational apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

www.luckygeckoapps.com

Their apps (so far) are:

• Balancing Equations Pack 1 – Designed to help exercise children’s mental maths. The object of this multiple choice game is to find the number that is missing in the given equation.
• Synonym Matching Pack 1 - Perfect for expanding children’s vocabulary. The object of this multiple choice game is to find the synonym for the word that is given.

Watch a Youtube video about the Synonym Matching app below and find out more on the Lucky Gecko Apps site.

Tom Barrett has started a new collaborative project called ‘Shared Search‘… the aim is create a set of search engines related to specific topics, where the results have been contributed by educators. Tom has started the first one, which is linked to the topic of sealife.

You can find out how to add sites to the search engine, and use the tool itself on Tom’s blog post. Don’t forget to follow his RSS feed to hear about future Shared Search facilities as they are created.

Encyclopædia Britannica has recently launched a brand new series of educational and engaging iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad apps for children, aged 8-12. The interactive apps have been designed to keep kids busy for hours on end with exciting facts, maps, memory games, puzzles, quizzes and videos and are a fantastic tool to help kids get their homework and projects done.

The first three apps in the series – Volcanoes, Dinosaurs and Ancient Egypt – are now available, with other educational themed apps, based around the national curriculum set to launch in the coming months.

World leaders have promised that all children will have a primary education by 2015 but with only 5 years left to go, there are still 75 million children missing out on an education completely.

1Goal, organized by the Global Campaign for Education, aims to get more children around the world a school place. The theme for 2010 is ’1GOAL’ to link in with the World Cup in South Africa.

www.sendmyfriend.org

There are three simple steps for schools to get involved:

• Make a gigantic 1GOAL supporter scarf,
• Hold a 1GOAL event (or assembly) in your school,
• Make it count! – by sending the scarf to the Prime Minister and adding the number of 1GOAL supporters in your school to the online Scoreboard.

Watch a Youtube video about the project below:

Find out more, and discover lots of useful teaching resources, at the Send My Friend website.

Here are links to some education related news articles from this week:

• Fewer practical experiments in Science lessons – The ‘demands of the curriculum, tests and badly behaved pupils’ are resulting in lesson practical Science experiments taking place.
• Truancy levels in England rise – Truancy levels are now at the highest levels ever recorded.
• Presents for teachers – 93% of teachers have received gifts from their pupils. Have you ever been given any of these?
• Children ‘have nobody to talk to’ – The Children’s Commissioner for England asks if pupils are in danger of becoming too regimented by school life.
• Home schooling in Germany – Parents are not allowed to home school their children in Germany.
• Extra funding for Irish language schools – Millions of pounds are being given to help schools to improve their buildings.
• Free internet access in libraries – A review by the Department of Culture calls for free internet access and e-books in libraries to boost the number of people using them.
• Following the fantastic #movemenon book, teachers on Twitter are now building a collection of tips and advice for new leaders. Follow their ideas here.

• Compulsory standards for nursery food – The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) announces that it has asked the School Food Trust to review the rules for nursery food.
• A-Level shake-up – The Conservatives unveil plans for a radical shake-up of A-levels that would see a return to traditional exams taken at the end of two years of study.

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