Technology

Voki

by admin on 25/05/2013

VokiI introduced my gang to Voki yesterday. I hadn’t really used it before and thought that it was high time we tried it out to see what curricular possibilities it could have. Voki is a website that allows the pupil to create a customised avatar. There are many options to personalise the avatar that will instantly engage the pupils – they can change all the physical attributes of the avatar as well as its appearance and background. You can also include an image from your computer as a background. [click to continue…]

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Guest Post: Capturing Creativity

by admin on 14/04/2013

Future Classroom LabAs a teacher, I am passionate about integrating ICT in educational settings. In particular, I am interested in how digital tools can really bring teaching and learning to life in creative, dynamic ways. Over the last few years, I’ve experimented with lots of ICT tools, some more challenging than others, leaving me keen to learn more! So I was delighted to recently join 17 European teachers at the Future Classroom Lab (FCL) in Brussels for a 2-day course on the Creative Use of Multi-Media and Devices in the Classroom. [click to continue…]

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Weave Silk Art

by admin on 11/04/2013

Weave SilkTwitter is great! Last night Bianca Ní Ghrógáin (@groganbee) Tweeted a link to this visual art website called Weave Silk. As next week is Digital Art Week, I decided to let my pupils have a go at creating some digital art using the site. They’ve had great fun using the site for homework and posting their creations on their blogs. [click to continue…]

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Digital Art Week

by admin on 09/04/2013

Digital Art WeekNext week sees the arrival of our 3rd annual Digital Art Week. This gives primary school children around Ireland the opportunity to share their digital art with other children around the country and complete some fun visual arts activities. As it’s digital, over the course of the week, schools will use digital tools such as Twitter in order to learn about art and to create their own pieces of work. [click to continue…]

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Making Blog Comments

by admin on 29/03/2013

KidblogGetting pupils blogging is a great dimension to add to the class dynamic. It is most rewarding for both the pupils and the teacher. I have written a previous post about commencing a class blog with my 6th class this year. It has been well received by pupils and parents alike. The pupils quite like getting work, including homework,  to do on the blog and one of the aspects that they like is commenting on each other’s blog posts. [click to continue…]

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The Irish in Stories iBook

March 17, 2013

The Irish in Stories is a new interactive iBook just released in the last couple of days. It is a 60 page book for the iPad which opens in the iBooks application. It aims to bring to readers the rich and varied history and mythology of ancient Ireland. It is full of beautiful illustrations, interactive [...]

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Inside Education/CESI Podcast

March 17, 2013

Inside Education is a weekly radio programme on 103.2 Dublin City FM in the Dublin area with live streaming on Dublin City FM. You can hear it every Sunday live at 19:30 (Dublin time). It is repeated at 15:30 on Mondays. The programme is presented and produced by Seán Delaney, Registrar at Marino Institute of [...]

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A History of Ireland in 100 Objects

March 16, 2013

To mark Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union and to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, a new free app/ebook has just been released called A History of Ireland in 100 Objects. The development of this app/ebook has been a collaboration between The Royal Irish Academy, the National Museum of Ireland, The Irish Times, the EU [...]

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SMS Generator

March 12, 2013

I just came across this great new tool for the classroom on Russell Tarr’s Class Tools website. It is called an SMS Generator. This tool allows you to create a mock text message conversation within this free online tool. It is a really easy tool to use and so effective. To begin the conversation, you [...]

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40 Technologies for the Classroom

March 1, 2013

This was my presentation delivered at the Computers in Education Society of Ireland (CESI) annual conference on February 23rd, 2013. As the society was celebrating its 40th birthday, I decided to share 40 different technologies that can be used in the classroom. The presentation is a mixture of recommendations of websites, apps and technologies. It [...]

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Signs of Spring Twitter Project

February 28, 2013

It’s time for another Twitter project to get your class organised to look about and observe the signs of Spring in their environment. We started off these projects last year with a Signs of Spring and Signs of Autumn Twitter project. It was felt that we did the Signs of Spring project a little too [...]

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Bring A Teacher To Twitter

February 10, 2013

I just came across this great new idea from Stephen Lockyer (@mrlockyer) in the UK where a campaign is afoot to get teachers currently using Twitter to recruit a colleague or fellow teacher to start using Twitter. Called Bring A Teacher To Twitter (using the hashtags #battt or #batttuk), the aim is to get experienced [...]

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Enhancing Gaeilge Using ICTs

February 4, 2013

Last Monday saw the launch of a new book “Enhancing the Learning and Teaching of Irish With ICTs” (Ag Cur Barr Feabhais Ar Fhoghlaim Agus Ar Theagasc Na Gaeilge Le TFC). The book was launched by Seán O Foghlú, Secretary General, Department of Education  and Skills (DES) in Dublin West Education Centre (DWEC). The book [...]

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CESI 40th Anniversary Conference

January 26, 2013

The Computer in Education Society of Ireland (CESI) is gearing up for its annual conference on Saturday February 22nd, and, as it’s the 40th anniversary of the foundation of CESI, the theme of this year’s conference is “CESI 4.0: Back To Our Future”. The conference will be held this year in the Galway-Mayo Institute of [...]

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Safer Internet Day 2013

January 25, 2013

Safer Internet Day 2013 is an EU wide initiative to promote a safer Internet for all users, especially young people, and will be celebrated in Ireland on Tuesday 5th February 2013. This year, Safer Internet Day, which is promoted in Ireland by the PDST Technology in Education and Webwise, is urging all internet users to [...]

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