| Project News The support phase of the 1998-9
Portables for Teachers Initiative ends on 31 July and
this is the last newsletter in its current form. We are
in discussions with the DfEE about building on the
project by inviting portables teachers to stay on-line
and help develop the National Grid for Learning and
on-line communities. News of this will be sent only by
e-mail to the portables98 list (ie if you receive this
newsletter you are on that list). So, if your e-mail
address changes, please inform the Portables Office (portables@becta.org.uk) or phone 01203 847042.
As completed transfer
forms and teachers' final reports are received at BECTa,
we have been writing to schools transferring ownership
and responsibility for the laptops and other equipment to
them. A remarkable 99.5% of the 4,485 schools have now
sent reports and they make fascinating reading. Many
thanks for your help in this at a busy time of the year.
All equipment is now out
of warranty but you may wish to extend it for another
year to cover repairs to your laptop. If so, use the
following contacts (mention BECTa and the DfEE Multimedia
Portables for Teachers scheme):
- Centerprise: Tracy
Palmer, 01256 378060
- RM: 0870 0106001
- Opus/Tiny: £99 + VAT per laptop; please fax
(01293 782 663) or e-mail ( jo.cooper@tinycomp.co.uk) your order giving the
serial number of the laptop
- Hi-Grade: 0181
5326522.
Internet subscriptions may
be renewed at discounted rates with either Scotland on
Line (0845 2711127) or Easynet (0541 514040) or you may
wish to make other arrangements - see ISP advice below.
What is happening to
laptops now they belong to schools? Most are staying with
the teachers and some are being reallocated. Here are two
other ideas posted recently:
- "We shan't be
putting ours into our IT room, but will keep them
to work with as we have this year. We hope if
funds are available to buy a staffroom portable
which staff will sign up for and take home. I'm
sure this is one of the best ways to improve
skills." Diana Ormond, dmormond@portables1.ngfl.gov.uk
- "We hope to take
delivery of three second-hand portables this week
- total cost about equal to one new one."
David Godfrey, Dwgodfrey@tesco.net
ICT in Education News
Becta web site
awards
On 8 July 1999
Charles Clarke MP, Under-Secretary of State for School
Standards, presented awards to the twelve winning schools
and colleges. They have developed exceptionally creative
and effective web sites, selected from hundreds of
entries to the BECTa UK School and College Web Site
Awards. The winning entries, two of which (Ambleside and
Hugo Meynell) are portables schools, can be seen at www.becta.org.uk/websiteawards/winners/index.html.
Managed Services:
Certified Suppliers announced on 21st July
NGfL Managed
Services offer schools and other institutions a total
information and communications package to include all of
the following core elements: equipment; local networking;
Internet access; operational software; installation,
testing and certification of readiness for use; servicing
and technical support plus initial training and
commissioning. More at managedservices.ngfl.gov.uk and http://www.becta.org.uk/press-release/man-serv-launch.html.
Launch of college
for school leadership prospectus
Opening later this year, the National College
for School Leadership will act as the national body for
leadership training for heads, deputies and other school
leaders. The College will be a £10 million centre with
residential facilities, using new technologies. Most of
the College's operations will make it a virtual college
on the Internet. DfEE Press Release 241/99 2/6/99:
www.dfee.gov.uk
Online education news
Keeping up to date
with the latest education news is easy from your laptop:
Announcements
We pass on these messages
which might be of interest. No BECTa endorsement is
implied:
ICTeachers
Who better to support and inform teachers than
other teachers? A group of portables people (including
heads and ICT co-ordinators) have set up a company
offering services to schools. Providing online support,
e-mail for children and for school clusters, web site
building and hosting at prices depending on school size
and a free resources area, ICTeachers Ltd. (icteachers.co.uk) are on 0161 202 5639 or info@icteachers.co.uk.
Schoolzone:
Reviewers wanted
Schoolzone (www.schoolzone.co.uk) are recruiting teacher reviewers
to classify their ever-growing number of educational
resources (over 30,000). Just visit the sites assigned
you then fill in an on-line form to add your review to
the database. Schoolzone will pay £1 for every site
reviewed - about five minutes' work. Call or fax 01242
263204 or e-mail schoolzone@dial.pipex.com.
Project Support
The Portables web site now
contains many case studies including tips on producing a
web site at portables.ngfl.gov.uk/Key_Resources/Support/Case_study_list/Case_study_index.html
Two new discussion groups
have been set up:
- Share ideas about
mathematics in primary schools - join Maths
Strategy by sending the message subscribe maths-strategy to majordomo@vtc.org.uk.
- Discuss school links
and European developments - send the message subscribe europe to majordomo@vtc.org.uk
Internet
Service Providers
Your Internet subscription
to either Scotland on Line or Easynet expires after one
year. Many people appear to be staying with their
existing provider but, with the growth of
‘free’ services, some portables people are
moving to other Internet providers. Below we offer some
tips and and information on Internet providers mentioned
by portables people as providing a good service. BECTa
does not recommend a particular service provider. Contact
your LEA for views on Internet services, for information
about other forms of Internet access and on safe use of
the Internet. Details are correct to the best of our
knowledge but please check before committing yourself.
Tips
- Some free services
require a considerable amount of personal
information; this is valuable to them. Think
carefully before deciding whether to provide
this.
- Some services, often
provided on CD-ROMs, overwrite settings on your
computer making it difficult to use other
Internet accounts.
- You can often have
several Internet access accounts for your
computer without causing problems.
- Sometimes you only
have to know the dial-up telephone number of the
service provider to connect to the Internet. Here
is how to connect with BT Click (0845 7576333)
for example:
- On your
computer, double click on My Computer
- Double click
on Dial-Up Networking
- Double click
on Make New Connection
- In the box,
type a name (eg BT Click)
- Click on Next
- Enter the
Area Code (ie 0845) and Telephone number
(ie 7576333)
- Click on Next
- Click on
Finish.
- When you want
to go on the Internet, just go to the
icon for BT Click in the Dial-Up
Networking folder, write a user name in
the box (leaving the password box blank)
and double click to launch.
- A short-cut
from the desktop makes it even easier
(left click once on the BT Click icon,
right click once, select Create short
cut, click on OK).
- If you have a web
site keep a copy on your hard disc.
Details of
Internet Services used by portables people
| ISP |
Help
desk cost per min. |
Email |
Contact |
Notes |
| Scotland
On Line |
free
24 hours a day |
One account:
you@portables1.ngfl.gov.uk
|
www.scotlandonline.net; 0845 2711127; 01382
429000; customer-services@scotland.net |
Offer
to portables: £30 +VAT (normal price £99) |
| Easynet |
free |
One
account: you@portables2.ngfl.gov.uk |
www.easynet.net; 0541 514040 |
Offer
to portables: £99 for two (normal price
£129.99). |
| BT
Clickfree |
50p |
Talk21
www.talk21.com (POP3* or web based* mail)
|
www.btclickplus.com; 0800 7317887 |
|
| LineOne |
50p |
yourname@lineone.net |
www.lineone.net; 0345 777464 |
Recommended
in Which? Magazine June 1999. |
| Gateway |
£1 |
yourname@gateway.net |
www.gateway2000.co.uk |
"Easy to
sign up. They do ask for a lot of information but
make it clear which is optional." |
| TES
Freeline |
50p |
yourname@learnfree.co.uk |
www.learnfree.co.uk; 0845 3000635 |
Includes
free access to Net Nanny. |
| Tesco |
50p |
yourname@tesco.net |
www.tesco.net |
|
| *POP3 email works
through software on your PC, eg Outlook Express,
which will often speed up email processes and
offer more features. It also gives you the
convenience of reading and writing email offline
- connect only long enough to download and send
your messages.
Web-based
email lets you send and receive email from
any web access point. It stores your messages on
the Web so you can access both them and your
personal address book from wherever you connect
to the Internet. |
School Projects
The
Solar Eclipse
- Alverton School's Eclipse site list
Thanks to
(and more links from) Chris Griffiths, cjgriffths@portables1.ngfl.gov.uk.
The Science Museum
The Science Museum is marking the 80th anniversary of the
first non-stop transatlantic flight. A new website, 'Flights of Inspiration' celebrates with photographs, charts
and extracts from personal letters.
Case Studies
A year with my PC
I have found using the
laptop both exciting and frustrating and although still
learning, I now use it for all my classroom planning,
both for the Literacy and numeracy hours and all the
other areas. I have made templates for my planning, and
use cut and paste to transfer objectives etc. Typically
just after I had finished typing in the whole of the
Literacy objectives I found they could be downloaded from
the net, still I can now type with all fingers, so all
was not lost.
During this year I have
put pictures into the school prospectus, produced in
service training resources for teachers and teaching
assistants, Learnt how to surf the net, and am now
compiling a list of sites with lesson plans, worksheets
etc ready for staff to access next term when we should
get our new ICT suite.
In school we have been
sending e-mails to a school in Berkshire, and at home I
have been in contact with a long lost cousin in Canada,
and kept in touch with a member of staff who has moved
areas. I have gained so much confidence that I hope to
start a M.Ed with ICT as a focus in September.
My next aim is to get a
website ready. I have tried but am finding it a problem.
I have found a website which apparently takes you through
step by step, so once reports, assessments etc are
finished.
Karen
Lawrence klawrence@portables1.ngfl.gov.uk
How a laptop
changed my life
This machine has totally
changed my life and I cannot begin to imagine how, just
one year ago, I got by without it! Here are some of the
things that, as a headteacher, the laptop has achieved
for me.
- Headteacher appraisal
by e-mail! a much quicker process than the
original protracted scribing exercise. Drafts can
be whizzed backwards and forwards until the
appraisee is happy, then the whole lot sent off
to the relevant participating inspector.
- A brand new powerful
office computer purchased from school funding,
with a net card link to the laptop has enabled
items from the school admin system to be
downloaded and worked on at home, or downloaded
and e-mailed wherever. (You get a much quicker
response from County Hall via e-mail and they
can't deny having received your missive!) Other
primary schools in Lincolnshire might be working
in WordPerfect 5.1, but we're flying! I would not
have seen these possibilities without the laptop.
- School Newsletters
are very sophisticated now with the digital
camera and Microsoft publisher.
- Inset days run much
more smoothly with productions from PowerPoint.
- Taking the laptop to
a course or conference allows me to action plan
on the spot. During recent Numeracy Training,
colleagues and I had the school's Numeracy Action
Plan in print by the third and final day of the
course. Everyone knew what we wanted to do and
where we were going.
- The BECTa project has
made me rethink our school approach to computers
in the classroom. We are budgeting for a machine
that will allow us to project the laptop onto a
screen in classrooms. Children can see the
technology and interact with it or watch
demonstrations from the many packages such as
'Tabs' or 'The Human Body'.
Maria
Teanby: mtteanby@portables1.ngfl.gov.uk
Portable
Poetry
Thank you BECTa for
Portables for Teachers,
The laptop, camera and all the features.
Thanks a million for the laptop, camera and printer;
They'll occupy my nights right through the long winter.
So please when the scheme
starts running again
Provide enough laptops for each of the children.
We ICT teachers are very possessional
And control of this prize has become somewhat
obsessional.
The idea is sound, for teachers and children alike
But it really is nothing like riding a bike!
The demands are endless;
'I must have the laptop'
The novelty value has faded but requests never stop.
To share out the demands our Head bought two more.
It seemed to help but IT help calls began to soar;
A sensor pad - no mouse - the 'on' button has moved,
More slidy bits and the battery fused;
Log reports hit record highs,
Another call to Centerprise
We've ironed out these
problems and faults.
The staff are timetabled for frenzied assaults.
But call me picky, an enemy of change,
I like my green nipple - not a sensor pad challenge!!!
Alex Miller (skkennedy@portables1.ngfl.gov.uk), Victoria Junior School
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