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Taken from http://c4lpt.co.uk/25Tools/

In March 2008 over 200 learning professionals worldwide contributed their Top 10 Tools for Learning.  From this we compiled Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 list.  These tools are the most popular free tools in 25 tool categories.  They are a mix of personal productivity tools (for managing personal learning) as well as authoring tools (for creating learning solutions). Many of them are Web 2.0 tools that promote a social, collaborative, sharing approach to learning.

• Gmail - all staff and students have Exchange email accounts
• Skype - Office Communication Server will be implemented over the next couple of terms
• Google Calendar - Exchange provides a calendar as does Sharepoint itself
• iGoogle - mysite can provide this functionality
• WordPress - Sharepoint has its own blog template, these would only be private to the SLG
• PBWiki - Sharepoint has its own wiki template, these would only be private to the SLG
• PollDaddy - Sharepoint has poll functionality
• Yugma - office communication server can deliver this functionality (I think)
• Ning - there are a variety of team meeting templates that can deliver this functionality

Over the Christmas break I found a new free screenshot application called Greenshot, on the sourceforge site it is described as a…

Revolutionary screenshot tool optimized for productivity. Save a screenshot or a part of the screen to a file within a second. Apply text and shapes to the screenshot. Offers capture of window, region or full screenshot. Supports several image formats.

The final image can be saved as a jpeg, png, bmp or gif.  For more information and to download the software go to: http://greenshot.sourceforge.net/

No snow, fear not thanks to Mark Pickering from Belvidere School in Shrewsbury you can still have a snowball fight

Have a great Christmas and all the best for 2009.

CEOP has their own channel on YouTube: uk.youtube.com/ceop

Here is just one of a selection of videos you can view:

European Schoolnet has launched a video competition, targeting young people from 15 to 19 years old, to encourage reflection on privacy and data protection. Participants are invited to express their thoughts and concerns about the use of their personal information in a 30-90 second video on the theme “Surf the internet - think Privacy” and to upload it before the 15 January 2009. Representatives from winning teams will be invited in Brussels to attend the Data Protection Ceremony on 28 January 2009 at the European Parliament.

During this two-day trip in the European capital, the winners (two students and one teacher from each winning team) will notably have the opportunity to meet the Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, Jacques Barrot, as well as members from the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the European Economic and Social Committee. Among the different activities planned, they will attend a conference about Young People and Privacy and explore the city of Brussels.

The Data Protection competition invites young people to demonstrate creativity and reflection by using their video camera or mobile phones, and to express their views about online privacy and the risks generated in a 30-90” film (10 MB maximum). Have a look at the different toolkits proposed for teachers and students on the website to find guidance and advice on the subject.  All contributions shall be uploaded on the gallery ( www.dataprotectionday.eu) before 15 January 2009. As entries start coming in, you can visit the online competition gallery to rate the uploaded entries.

Trips to Brussels to celebrate the Data Protection Day on 28 January 2009, and cash prizes will reward the winners, and their videos will be featured during this high-level event.  Schools from different European countries are also invited to present twin projects and a special prize will reward the best ”tandem video”.  The Data Protection Competition is organised by European Schoolnet (www.eun.org) with the support of Microsoft.

For further information about the project, please visit our website: www.dataprotectionday.eu

Shrophire LA were today announced as successful bidders in the RM ‘Creativity in the Curriculum’  competition.  The successful project bid written by Ruth Tanner and Steve Compton wins 25 Flip Ultra USB camcorders, a licence of Textease Movies CT DVE software, and an RM Expert 3030 PC.  Ruth and Steve will use the prizes to work with a Shropshire secondary school to develop the use of video as a learning tool in the maths curriculum.

Microsoft have released their first iPhone/iPod touch application - Seadragon (livelabs.com/seadragon/). The application is free and appears to use their Deep Zoom technology. The screen shots demonstrates the app in operation. The left most image is the whole picture then as you zoom you move towards the image on the right

Teachmeet at BETT seems to have gathered some momentum and organisation this week.  Teachmeet will be at Olympia on the Friday of BETT starting at 6pm and running until about 9pm.  At present the following people have agreed to talk:

1. Tom Barrett (Twitter) Happy to talk about something that has been going on in my classroom. Maybe an update on Multi-Touch desks.
2. Neil Winton (Twitter)- The Adventures of Johnny Bunko - What is Lesson 7 anyway?
3. Miles Berry (twitter) - happy to help. Willing to present, probably something open source.
4. Greg Hodgson - I will be there for a couple of days with Adobe but willing to show and tell about our latest exploits using virtual spaces and parental engagement.
5. Dai Barnes (twitter) Present some as yet undetermined classroom practice
6. Leon Cych (twitter) - Will be there - no slides no graphics just a small talk entitled ‘Why the government doesn’t get it about digital culture and learning‘ - a brief polemic but not fussed if I don’t get to present.
7. Dan Sutch (twitter) - there for the long haul, so happy to help out and talk about long term educational futures. Got some Futurelab sponsorship too
8. John d’Abbro - Something on Digital Creativity with children experiencing Behavioural Emotional and/or Social Difficulties (BESD)
9. Joe Wilson (twitter) Something on qualification developments from Scotland or internet safety or might just lurk
10. Doug Belshaw (Twitter) Finally got an excuse to go again this year - presenting with Miles Berry and Jose Picardo about Becta-funded Open Source Schools project. Would also like to give update on EdTechRoundup after launching it officially at last year’s TeachMeet! Happy to help in any way I can.
11. Stuart Ball Microsoft Innovative Teachers Programme Manager(Twitter), happy to help with ideas around professional development and using OneNote in schools.
12. JRowing (twitter) - Physics teacher & Geek - happy to talk about any of the bits I’ve been up to - videoconferencing, moodle, blogging, podcasting homeworks etc!
13. Steve Bunce ICT Consultant, Northumberland - Games, Nintendos, Phones - looking forward to it!!!
14. John Connell The view from the emerging markets: seven countries in seven minutes!
15. Theo Kuechel (Twitter) As John (above) is covering seven countries, I will take us to seven places with valuable (free) content.
16. Daniel Needlestone (twitter) - ICT Teacher / E-learning Coordinator - Some exciting example of something from the classroom!

If you are at BETT on the Friday and would like to hear these people talk about what they are doing in the classroom, or would like to share with others what you are doing then pop over to teachmeet.pbwiki.com/TeachMeet09Bett and add yourself to the wiki.

This competition is only open to Shropshire maintained schools.

While trying to re-install the old plugins on the blog I came across the ‘WPtouch iPhone theme’ plugin, www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch

As you can see from the image the plugin automatically formats the blogs appearance when viewed on an iPhone or iPod touch.