Merlin John Online

Royal Mail's intelligent stamps are first past the post

Philately could be the next buzz in a classroom near you – the 21st century version that is - thanks to a range of “intelligent” stamps that can connect to special online content, including video, on a Royal Mail channel via an iPhone or Android smartphone.

The stamps, understood to be first of their kind in the world, work with image recognition technology via the free Junaio app available through the iPhone store and Android Market. They will “mark key events and anniversaries in the UK's heritage through a programme which aims to be both educational and informative,” says Phillip Parker, head of stamp strategy at Royal Mail. Read more...

'Bring your own' ICT for innovation and sustainability

Maureen McTaggart visits Scargill Junior where innovation with ICT is changing learning

Transfixed by the maths problem on her PC, Millie willingly demonstrated a point for me when asked by her teacher. But the 8-year-old's body language said: "Let's be quick. I’ve got the rest of the world to play with."

She was desperate for an early finish to the tasks set by teacher, Karen Webley so she could claim her reward – the chance to compete in maths games with learners across the world using the Mathletics online service. Scargill Junior School, in Havering, London, is taking play to a new level.

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It's official. Mobile learning is effective - MoLeNET 2

Bob Harrison on a new report on one of the world's biggest handheld learning projects – MoLeNET
Eyebrows were raised when the then Learning Skills Council (LSC) announced it would make £6 million of capital funds available to English further education colleges for shared cost mobile learning projects in 2007/8 for the new MoLeNET project.

Colleges were invited to submit proposals that would assist colleges and partners in implementing mobile learning, providing staff training, building capacity and evaluating impact.

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Young learners don't even need file names with JIT

By Chris Drage
Finding any software for early years children to help develop ICT skills is challenging. Most falls into the ‘edutainment’ camp which tends to disguise any real development of creativity and skills. Or it demands too much from the learner. However, Just2easy Infant Tools (JIT) addresses the balance and gets it just right.

JIT is a set of seven online software tools – Write, Paint, Turtle (right), Chart, Pictogram, Animate, and Mix – specifically designed for younger learners. It has a colourful and friendly feel which appeals to nursery through to lower primary pupils and it encourages children to create on the web in an enjoyable and stimulating way, progressing at their own pace.

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Writing support gets better with Crick's WorkSpace

WorkSpace makes a successful writing tool even better, writes Chris Drage

The benefits of being able to express ideas visually have long been understood, and mind maps are tools that help achieve this. Crick Software’s writing support software, WriteOnline, now includes WorkSpace (right), a visual mind-mapping tool that enables pupils to organise their thoughts and ideas into mind maps before they even begin to write.

WriteOnline, Crick Software’s award winning-writing tool for learners of all abilities, from upper primary school to adults, offers more support than any other word processor for those who find writing difficult. The software can be used online and on CD too, giving users the option to install it on their computers, while enjoying the freedom to use the program anywhere else simply by logging in.

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Free apps highlight of Microsoft summer camp

There are probably many places a teacher would rather be – unpaid – during the summer break than one with the word "campus" in its name. But according to geography teacher Graeme Eyre, his two days at Microsoft’s Reading site has recharged his “tech batteries ready for the new year”.

He was one of 22 educators taking part in Microsoft’s second Innovative Teachers’ Summer Camp to share good practice and work together, and judging by the resulting blogs, like David Rogers' and The Geeky ICT Teacher, the free technology CPD training and road testing of the company’s free programs for education and free Office add-ins were well received.

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Newsbytes - bits that fit...

Innovative ICT research... Futurelab move… BullyingUK to close?... Microsoft freebies... Timetabling for Africa... Jisc Collection stays... Ewan Macintosh to Bahrain... Learning Without Frontiers...
London Knowledge Lab is planning an international research project looking at the innovative uses of technology in schools. Based at the Institute of Education and directed by senior lecturer Neil Selwyn (pictured), the project will run until June 30, 2011.

Basic information about the project – including plans for global teacher workshops and conferences – can be found in the Lab's job advertisement for a research officer (salary £29,854-£35,647). Interested? You’ll have to hurry because applications close on August 31.
London Knowledge Lab

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Bob the Builder – he did fix it!

By Sally McKeown
At the BETT Special Needs Fringe in 2007 you could spot the grandparents. They all queued up to have their photo taken with Bob the Builder.

None of the parents bothered; they'd had the delights of Bob most of the week and were too busy enjoying time out with free wine and canapés courtesy of Inclusive Technology. Three years later, the company and Bob have smashed their target and made £60,000 for Manchester's New Children’s Hospital Appeal.

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The Innovators: 21 Wendy Keay-Bright

John Galloway talks to one of the UK's leading designers for special needs

"Innovation can be as simple as using the wrong tools because you don't have the right ones to hand," suggests Wendy Keay-Bright (pictured), Reader in Inclusive Design at Cardiff School of Art and Design.

It is this ability to take what we have and to find new ways of using it, to find fresh purposes for existing objects, that makes everyone a potential innovator. "Starting from what we have and looking at it in a different way," she explains, "and just looking at it because it has particular attributes of it's own, values of its own, without the necessity always to be functioning or problem solving."

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Routes to literacy lead through ph-ph-ph-phonics

Synthetic phonics is central to government policies. Ray Barker explains why, and the role of ICT
Of course, the critics say synthetic phonics can’t possibly work. English is basically an ‘unphonetic’ language; there are so many exceptions to any rule.

Just think about the opening to a child’s story: ‘Once upon a time there was ...’. How do you teach a child the sound of ‘o’ in once? It’s not the same as the ‘o’ in dog or in blood or in enough. What about the sound of ‘a’ in was? It’s more like an ‘o’ definitely not like the sound of ‘a’ in cat. Because it’s the sound of letters we are concerned with here. It’s about learning the 44 sounds in English and their corresponding letters or letter groups

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