If you use a MacBook Pro like me and you recently installed Lion OS then you’ll be pleased to hear there are solutions emerging for the dire loss of battery life that Lion has caused. Apple are on the case soon it seems, but various clever people have got there first:
Any of you who work in education will know the name Stephen Heppell well. But if you don’t…you may find some useful nuggets via this ink to his website….lots of goodies in here…
learning • ingenuity • research • policy • design • technology • delight • + sailing!.
This might be of interest to anyone working online with young people. Tell your kids’ school or use materials at home….
A recent purchase of an iPod Touch for our daughter’s 9th birthday has already revolutionised the daily homework grind. As expected – the functionality, ease of use, general Apple lushness of the device and the ease of use of various educational apps has meant previously dull activities such as learning spellings, doing times tables etc has suddenly become almost engaging.
Whereas before, a mini version of the battle of the Somme would take place every evening: us sending regular salvos of parental artillery across the table, sounding like the manic, abusive parent in Pink Floyd’s The Wall: “You must finish your homework before you can have anything nice!!!” (while I rant incoherently about attacking the next school governor’s meeting to demand an end to pointless, dull, educationally invalid, family harmony sapping homework…), while our darling mutters, “..no, I’m staying firmly entrenched in my bunker, adamant I won’t try these boring spellings on these flimsy and crumpled, crappy bits of paper I have to bring home from school, when I could be doing something more meaningful in my young life, like practicing some nifty new moves to Swan Lake.
But gosh..this morning the sun came out and as our solar-powered plastic butterfly fluttered it’s wings at the strong light beaming across the breakfast table, the iPod came out silently, the gentle ping of a new word learned blessed the air..no fuss..no hair-raising screaming from us…most of the week’s spellings sorted before school, five days early..job done completely independently..bliss. And after the spelling s were sorted some times tables were also dispatched successfully in a bloodless coup..
So – some great educational apps that we’ve installed to get her started (and there are squillions more out there..):
Test you spelling – works a treat – there are loads of other ones..
Same as Times Tables – all sorts of these, including some that are created as games rather than straight sums. Lots of score board treats to suck ’em in..
As a family who love photography, here’s a few we’ve used and put on the iPod:
OldBooth is great fun – make you Dad look like an eighties icon or even a camp squaddie from the fifties.
Hipstamatic allows you to shoot square framed images with an array of retro, Polaroid effects, nice movie style black and white and much more. You can swap film, lenses etc.
Here are some great science apps that will teach your kids about the stars and the solar system:
If your kids are keen on wildlife…here’s one on birds (costs a bit but has all UK bird songs, images, data etc..)
And finally for now…some great Google reference and research apps and GoogleEarth on your iPod:
As and when we toy with more apps that work well…we’ll let you know.
Some key questions here – why should any school have to endure a national curriculum if the government accepts that it may not be appropriate or desirable for academies and Free schools? Is this is a cynical carrot to change schools’ status and governance through devious means….?
The national curriculum: why have one if it’s not for everyone? | Education | The Guardian.
Check out this excellent blog by Rhys Morgan, 17, Cardiff. He recently got seriously harassed by representatives of the Burszynski clinic in Houston. You can read the story in The Guardian.
And here’s Rhys’ blog:
Raises interesting questions for teachers as well who have yet to discover the power of blogging for learning. How to learn about global citizenship issues.. and never underestimate young people…!
Thanks to my colleague Dave Moore for tweeting about this useful website – and of course thanks to the author as well David Terron.
Take a look at this useful site with good detailed reviews of lots of ipad apps for education – many of them free. Reasonably easy to navigate and well worth a look. If anyone knows of other similar sites, please let us know.
Thanks to those that created it: IEAR
BBC News – New York schools enter the iZone.
Thanks for Sir Ken Robinson for alerting us to this. Wouldn’t it be good if the UK government could encourage this sort of innovation in the UK? Instead it’s all talk about ‘bootcamp‘ schools and banning mobile devices on classrooms. Wake up Mr Gove – the revolution has already started!
The Global Education Collaborative – The Official Social Network of the Global Education Conference.
Check out this global education collaborative….lots of good thinking….lots of positive action
learningbeyond 