Becta school website to bring transformation in teaching

News

By

-

April 6, 2006

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) will reduce the number of online services and brands it provides for schools in response to the Department for Education and Skills five-year strategy and e-Strategy, 'Harnessing Technology'.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Over the coming months some changes would be seen in Becta's online presence. This includes the news, features and school website directory. The aim is to work towards a position where teachers should be able to work from any Internet access point at any time, linked to the tools and learning services they need in order to plan, prepare, manage and follow up learning experiences for their students. The site provides online curriculum, which features multimedia resources to support teaching and learning. This site is an example of the Government's ongoing commitment to ICT and the drive to transform teaching and learning in schools.

Online lessons set parents learning, too

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 5, 2006

When the first homework was handed out to kindy and first graders at Glenorie Public School this term, there were two groups to instruct. First, the children: their task was to compile a mini animal project using a set website and then email their picture and a simple descriptive sentence as an attachment to the school's online homework site. Then, there was the parent-teacher night to help parents understand what their youngsters were doing.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Glenorie Public is a school of few textbooks and exercise books, except for practising handwriting or in an emergency, like a computer going down. Every classroom has internet access and teachers steer students through online resources using a system called LAMS (Learning Activity Management System) to avoid Google overload and keep them off inappropriate sites. Homework is posted online and students use forums to comment on novels they are reading or to ask each other for help with maths.

Glenorie is a government school on Sydney's north-western fringe, relying on standard funding, says the acting principal, Debbie Evans. But it has put its resources into e-learning. For students without home computers there is extra computer time at school. The result, says Evans, is a learning model which encourages discussion and can be tailor-made for different competencies.

Teachers identify high-quality internet sites and set multi-stage activities, leading students to a wider range of sources as they progress and getting them talking in online forums.

Educomp to add 250 more people

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 5, 2006

E-learning solutions provider in India Educomp Solutions Limited plans to scale up headcount at its Bangalore facility by adding 250 people.

The company plans to invest close to RNI 4 crore in a new 30,000 sqft facility, that would house its global development centre here.

Educomp is in the business of developing digital content meant for K12 students (kindergarten to class 12), and has installed its 'Smart Class TM'

PocketLearn introduces products that transform mobile phones into learning tools

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 5, 2006

Technology startup PocketLearn Inc (www.pocketlearn.com) has introduced a suite of software products that enable many cellular telephones and personal digital assistants or “PDA's” to become mobile tools for learning. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Among the products are special “Viewers” that are installed on the devices, as well as Windows based content creation tools. PocketLearn has initially targeted Windows Mobile devices such as the Pocket PC and Smartphone, as well as Java phones. Almost all mobile phones today will run Java software. This means that if your device is a true “smart” device that meets the minimum requirements, you can run the software. There is also a Windows version of the PocketLearn Viewer, which means it will run on Microsoft's newly announced “Oregami” device. A version for Palm devices is in the works.

PocketLearn has sought to establish a standard for educational software on these smart devices by building products on top of industry-standard technologies such as HTML and XML, and by making most of their software available for free. Their strategy is to standardize the format of the content and provide viewer software for a variety of devices. Content creators can really focus on content, with the assurance that their creations will be viewable on a very wide range of devices. PocketLearn content can include not only HTML-formatted text, but also images and audio.

Key to the PocketLearn strategy is their online content repository (also at www.pocketlearn.com), which serves as a searchable and categorized collection of content that can be downloaded, rated and reviewed by the user community. In fact, the web site is also “small device friendly” and provides a good browsing experience for the limited browsers found on these devices.

ICT passion up teachers to use it as a tool for teaching

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 5, 2006

With reference to the survey conducted by Dell, a technology company, on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in education, it is quite transparent that teachers are showing more interest in adopting ICT in classroom.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

This new research from Dell shows that technology is increasingly critical to helping teachers deliver the national curriculum and improving pupils' learning, particularly those in hard-to-reach groups. The survey showed technology was supporting the delivery of the Department for Education and Skills' 2005 e-Strategy, which was transforming learning and enabling children to fulfil their educational potential. It was also increasing productivity by lessening the administration workload for teachers. Younger teachers were particularly supportive of the expansion of technology into classrooms, but older teachers were also seeing the benefits.

Preston Community School in Somerset Accelerates Pupils’ Language Learning with e-Learning Programs

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 4, 2006

Preston Community School, a secondary school in Yeovil, Somerset, has boosted its pupils' language learning skills following a successful pilot scheme of Rosetta Stone's online language learning. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

80% of pupils of mixed ages and abilities, including those with literacy and/or behavioural problems, that evaluated the online French, German and Spanish programs claim to have learnt new language skills, consolidated previous learning, and are keen to continue using the software.

The online courses were introduced in computer classes, language lessons and after school clubs. Passwords were also allocated so that pupils could continue learning at home, thereby gaining the support and encouragement of their parents. The objective of the e-learning pilot was for pupils to learn new language skills and grammar structures and to support previous learning.

Rosetta Stone's Dynamic Immersion method stems from two core beliefs: that the natural way people learn their native language as children remains the most successful method for learning new languages; and that interactive technology can replicate and activate immersion-based learning that is a powerful method for learners of any age.

The wide range of units on offer meant that pupils were able to find the ability level at which they were happiest working, as well as choosing the content they found most interesting. Pupils were monitored using the online tracking system and marked for each unit completed. Many took great pride in their scores, which introduced a competitive element and encouraged them to continue learning at home.

Online Training Postgraduate Programme in a college of Ethiopia

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 4, 2006

The College of Telecommunications and Information Technology is going to launch the first-ever online training programme at postgraduate diploma level in the country this year to meet the demands of Information Communications Technology professionals.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The programme is going to be started form next July as the regular training. The programme in different areas of ICT and telecom would enable students to take the courses in their own time by accessing the training materials in textual and video content form. The regular training programmes are offered in the fields of telecom engineering and information technology at MSc levels, and Master of Business Administration (MBA) in telecom in order to move the telecom industry of the country with the pace of the changing technology.

BCS website to offer career advice to IT professionals

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 4, 2006

The British Computer Society (BCS) website is going to give career advice to IT students and professionals as a part of the news which would be supported by personalised accounts from people working in a wide range of IT roles.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The careers section offers guidance on securing the elusive 'first job' and switching to a career in IT as well as identifying the roles available and how to access them. The website as a whole benefits from 600 additional pages providing all-embracing information on all aspects of the IT profession. A new students section, much of it written by students for students, also provides young aspiring professionals with advice, career profiles, new IT developments and reviews, project news from other colleges and universities and networking opportunities.

A digital approach to fight against crime in Zambia

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 4, 2006

Zambia Police is planning to digitalise the operation system to fight against crime because criminals are becoming sophisticated day by day.

Dr Jere, a senior Officer in Zambia Police, called on the media to join hands in fighting crime and creating peace in Zambia and challenged the media to verify their information before publishing to avoid misleading the public. Police would soon be conducting a press tour to the three police training institutions to familiarise press people with the training offered to officers.

ICT to create paperless and pen less classroom

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

April 4, 2006

ICT provide a practical and enabling solution for improving overall quality of education. It has been found that different institutions are using different ICT tools, which helps the student to improve the knowledge base.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

At Columbia University, a real-time Web-based service called LaundryView lets students log on to a Web- based system to see which washing machines are free before they head to the laundry room. Lecturers at Joliet Junior College in Illinois use an interactive learning software to increase student participation. At Babson College lecturers use voice-annotated spreadsheets that allow accounting and statistics students to make sense of complicated course work. In this way ICT innovation changes the old paradigm of teaching learning. The concept of paperless and pen less classroom are emerging as an alternative to the old teaching learning method.

LATEST NEWS

Top Trending News

Top Trending Categories