Head in the Cloud

In Pt1 I briefly explained how I began shaping my ideas of how Google Apps for Education could be used in a primary school. After explaining my thoughts and showing her 'models' I'd created, my wife who is currently acting head teacher at Rhws Primary School wondered whether these tools and services delivered by Google, could help to improve communication between the staff in her school? But it was clear when we started to discuss this further that it wasn't just communication between staff that we were trying to improve, it was many of the administrative practices that teachers had to carry out that could be improved too. I think it's important to bare in mind here that the school began this process before the Hwb+ national platform arrived for schools in Wales. However, I believe that most of the approaches that I'll describe below are as relevant to all Welsh primary schools about to launch with Hwb+ or any other learning platform. For instance the new ver...

For many years I have been a user of a variety of Google apps, everything from email account, calendar and contacts, to saving and sharing documents in Google Drive and creating websites with Google Sites. So it should come as no surprise that I started thinking about how a school could effectively use these tools. About 18 months ago I started experimenting by building 'mock' school websites, modelling what could possibly be done with the tools I had available. These sites were constructed using my own personal Google account, but aware that what was really needed was access to the freely available to schools  Google Apps for Education in order to get a full understanding of what it could offer a school. I browsed through case studies about how schools have implemented Google Apps for Education into their schools, and also read the 'techy' stuff showing how you can set it up for your school . All I now needed was a school willing to go with the vision I was dev...

Over the weekend I received an email from Oracle informing me that they are finally "sunsetting the Thinkquest program" in June. For my colleagues and I this is certainly an end of an era. For over 6 years Think.com, as it was formally known, was an integral part of our online elearning strategy in Newport alongside Moodle. It gave our primary schools the ability to extend opportunities for learning for pupils away from the classroom. Pupils and schools could communicate and collaborate together on their own projects, sharing ideas and thoughts. For two years we had one school working with a school in Belgium comparing and contrasting their localities. It was truly a worldwide tool allowing all schools in the Thinkquest community (which was huge) to contact one another and work together. I've yet to find another platform that does this so simply as Thinkquest did. I don't think Oracle really understood what they had and with a little bit of updating it could have bee...

It was only a matter of time but it's nice to see Google about to enter the Apple iPad dominated handheld education market with its own offering. Have a read here and register your interest...