ICT Conference 14th July 2007- Alan November

Another day of great ideas and inspiration to take back to the classroom, filled with goodies from all the software houses to take on approval.

Alan November was an excellent speaker that has certainly made me think out about empowering our future children to think outside of the box. I have included both his blog and web links. Do visit it is well worth it! He mainly spoke about how to educate children to be "critical thinkers!" and giving children the tools to compare authors writings on the web, checking ownership of Websites and making opinions about the content displayed. There were also plenty of tips and tricks to enable us to go away armed and ready to fight off a few sharks along the way.

He also stated that children at school are safe, as much as possible because of the filtering systems that we have in place. However, when those same children go home and continue their searching, they do not have that same safety net to stop them swimming into deep water's; and no matter how vigilant you are as a parent it's impossible to watch them all of the time whilst they are on line. What they see at home, typing in the same key phrases they did at school will be totally different than what results are displayed at home. The children need to know that!

I have always felt that the Internet was filled with plenty of sharks and stinging jelly fish, ready to attack. But, its been a question in my mind-How do you empower children to embrace the new technology out there while keeping safe. I think the answer is you can only advise. It made me reflect back to all the many other things out their that could be harmful to the future children of today. I think the same thing applies. Giving the children the facts/tools to realise for themselves the dangers gives them the control to make decisions about the choices they make.

ICT in Redbridge

This year has been an amazing time for me, I became a part of the leading Teachers group for ICT and have worked on some excellent task to support the progress and support that can be filtered out to other Subject Leaders in the borough. It's great to be a part of something that other may benefit and take some stress out of our busy and hectic jobs.

Hi my name is Amanda Fisher- a school teacher, ICT subject leader as well as a leading teacher in ICT for Redbridge. Having spent the last 5 years in reception, this year I finally made the move into deeper waters (Yr6) and have gone from abc and 123 to long division and persuasive writing-which, has been a challenge but great fun!

Being a mother of three also keeps me busy, although for the most part I should stick a TAXI sign on the top of my car, as I seem to spend so much time after school dropping off and picking up from various places. A precise account of every minute needed to make sure one is not dropped off and left to fend for themselves across mountains, deserts, fields and oceans to get home, while I sit and wonder what it is I was supposed to do! Luckily my multi functioning alarm on my phone does all the reminding for me, so none of them have been stranded yet!

I'm not quite sure if it's teaching or having three children that is to blame for the short term memory loss and complete scattiness! Maybe it's both?

My aim for this blog is to share some of the resources made over the years. I hope they will be useful!