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by Enda Donlon on 23/05/2013 21:13:00
 As more and more of my own reading material moves from traditional hardback and paperback texts to electronic format, one application that I make increasing use of is that of Calibre. Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/) is a free, cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) application that allows you to view, convert, create and manage e-books. The software supports e-book file formats for all of the major players in this area, including Amazon (Kindle), Android (tablets and phones), Apple (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) and Sony (Reader) as well as a number of others.
Once you start up the application, the main interface presents you with a number of easy to use options, including functionality to add new e-books to your Calibre library (individually or by folder), edit the metadata of e-books (either manually or download from web-based services), convert from one e-book format to another, either individually or in bulk (this conversion facility is one that I make particular use of), view (read) e-books, and search for e-books to download. You can view the details of e-books in your Calibre library by list or by a ‘cover-flow’ facility (very similar to that of iTunes).
When you connect an e-book reader to your computer, Calibre detects this and can manage the books on that device – send new books to the reader and remove existing ones – all through a drag-and-drop interface. If you attempt to copy an e-book that is not in a compatible format to an e-reader device, Calibre will detect this and will activate the ‘convert e-book’ facility to address this.
One of the features that I use quite a lot is that which allows me to create my own e-books, usually from PDF or Word documents. Unfortunately, Calibre is unable to generate e-books directly from Microsoft Word documents (.doc, .docx) but a quick workaround for this is to save the document as an OpenOffice (.odt) file (or you can of course use OpenOffice to produce the word processed file to begin with) with which Calibre can work directly. At this point you can also edit the metadata for your new e-book (which includes adding a cover image), modify the ‘look and feel’ of your e-book, and generate a table of contents for the book (see below). It is this e-book creation facility that offers particular educational benefit in terms of students (and indeed teachers) easily creating their own e-books.
You can download the free Calibre software at http://calibre-ebook.com/download, read the Calibre user manual at http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/index.html and view the Calibre introductory video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu_FgtM_Oqs.
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by John O' Mahony on 16/05/2013 21:14:00
Many teachers of junior primary classes, learning support and resource teachers and indeed other SEN teachers will have familiarity with Clicker 5 and 6 on the PC and Mac platforms. The good news is that Clicker has come to tablets also with the Clicker Docs app for IOS - (€25.99) available for purchase on the iTunes app store.
Clicker Docs is a child friendly primary school wordprocessor for the iPad. It requires IOS 6, so an iPad 2 or better is required to run the app. It offers pupils a word prediction facility that will encourage pupils to be more adventurous in their use of vocabulary when writing. It also helps pupils in being more productive with their writing by reducing the effort and struggle with getting their ideas on paper. It features a lower case keyboard and provides speech feedback as they write which will help with correcting errors. Like the full Clicker 6 suite for the PC and Mac, the Clicker Docs app has a word bank facility which teachers can use for creating topic or subject based word banks to support writers. Word banks have full speech support so that pupils can hear a word before choosing it. Simply tapping on the relevant word in a word bank will insert it into the wordprocessor.
Crick realise that in may classrooms iPad tablets may be timetabled and not accessible to teachers and pupils at all times, so they have made sure that work started on the iPad app is transferable to Clicker 6 on your PC or Mac.
More information on Clicker Docs can be found on:
 Youtube Video is available which demonstrates the app in action.
Screenr Screencast - by Brian S. Friedlander
The Publisher - Crick Software have a Clicker Apps home page where information on Clicker Docs and another app for younger pupils Clicker Sentences can be found on the Crick website.
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by Paul Monroe on 12/05/2013 19:09:00
People are always recommending new online sites that are useful for classroom teaching and learning. However with so many available options I find myself gravitating towards resources that are easy to use as I don't have the time to learn the ins and outs of every resource. After someone recently recommended Gooru, I decided to check it out and having done so I definitely think it is one to watch out for and certainly is easy to use.
Gooru is a search engine designed for education. Simply type your query into the search bar and you will be presented with resources in the following forms:
- videos
- interactives
- exams
- textbooks
- handouts
- lessons
- slides
Gooru allows you to refine your search by categories. Then, once you've found fantastic resources, you can save them in your collections to keep safe for next time.
As a Gooru member you have access to hundreds of resources according to subject areas such as science maths social science and language arts. Within each subject area you can look for resources according to media type such as video, interactive display, slides, text, and lesson plans. When you find resources that you want to use, drag them to the resources folder within your account. Gooru also offers you the option to add resources to your folders even if you did not find them within Gooru.
All resources are vetted and organized by teachers or Gooru's content experts, so you don't have to sort through the mess of subpar educational resources available online yourself.
Gooru also makes it easy for you to connect with your worldwide peers to make learning a social experience. Post questions to an active community of students, teachers and experts, or find friends and peers to study with.
Best of all, Gooru adapts to you. Based on the topics you study and your performance on self-assessments, Gooru suggests resources and study guides that will help you master the concepts. You can track your study habits and monitor your performance on any of the topics you study.
Gooru harnesses the power of the web by organizing free, online education resources into searchable collections, accessible from any web or mobile platform. Gooru is developed by a non-profit organization with a mission to honour the human right to education and make high quality education free and accessible to the world's one billion students by 2014.
I recommend you give it a try... think of a topic, enter it in the search bar, and see what is available.
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by Kieran Kelly on 08/05/2013 21:29:00
We have had the pleasure of updating our primary school history policy recently and we used ICT in a number of ways to create resources that may be used within the classroom. We found ICT particularly useful in creating a bank of resources on the local history of Harolds Cross, Dublin where the school is located.
Visualiser, Digital Camera & Interactive Whiteboard
We have a number of history books with fascinating pictures that we use visualisers to display on the Interactive Whiteboard within the classroom. Also, we have taken pictures of different historical photos in books and display them with child friendly text in PowerPoint presentations. Ensure that you email the publisher of the book to ask permission to reuse the photos for educational purposes.
There have been a number of signifcant events that have taken place in the Harold's Cross area over recent years and two of these are documented on YouTube: the floods of 2011 and the carrying of the Olympic Torch over the Harold's Cross bridge in 2012. It is easy to show pupils these clips and to discuss their local area and create timelines using them. We also found using the archives of the national newspapers to be of benefit in relation to local history as they provided photos and interesting articles about the local area that may be used in the senior classes.
The National Arhcives website facility to search the 1901 & 1911 census is an invaluable resource for pupils to see who lived in their local area for those years.
An interesting site that I have come across also is Neil Jackman's Arabta Audio guides to Irish history. Neil an Irish archaeologist has created a number audio guides on different parts of Irish history. He has created an excellent one on Viking and Medieval Dublin. Other audio guides include:The 1916 Rising, The Rock of Cashel and The Hill of Tara.
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by Joelle Hendrick on 25/04/2013 18:54:00
 The old routine for using computers, was quite often a “Computer Room”. Each class was allocated a time, usually 1 hour a week/fortnight. In my own case when I was at school, it meant that every Wednesday afternoon, we dropped our pencils, stopped whatever we were doing and marched in an orderly fashion to the “Computer Room”. Once there, we opened up Mavis Beacon, or another similar game and played, in pairs (or threes if you were unlucky,) for about an hour. That was it really! In sixth class, we did a bit of Microsoft Word, opening documents, changing font size etc.. which culminated in everyone typing and printing a small paragraph about themselves. It was very exciting! When I began my teaching career, there was no computer room in the school. Instead they had decided to give each classroom one or two computers to use in a more practical way. I suppose the idea is that computers can be used as needed, in project work etc… Often, there can be a rota associated with these computers and children can work on their work independently, complete specific programs and access websites. I have seen these computers used as an activity for early finishers, which has its own advantages and disadvantages. We all know that things have changed! We are no longer using computers to purely teach computer skills. As we are aware, many children are coming into us from Junior Infants with a certain level of skills from home. They are already familiar with keyboards, laptops and now also tablets. As a result, our use of computers in the classroom has changed from a subject in itself, to a commonly used methodology. Now, technology in schools is moving from exclusively PCs, to also include laptops, netbooks and tablets. In the school I teach in, the Senior end have been using a rota to share a trolley of laptops for a number of years. As an Infant teacher, I knew very little about this system and if it worked successfully and efficiently. Recently, we purchased a set of iPads and I couldn’t wait for my 4/5 year olds to get their sticky little hands on them! There was a brief discussion on how to utilise them best, and it was decided to implement a similar timetable to the laptop trolleys, incorporating al the class groups from Junior Infants – Sixth Class. I was relatively dubious about this, as I did not want to have to interrupt the natural flow of my classroom to have an hour of “iPad time”. I wanted the iPads to be integrated naturally as a learning tool and I also thought that 15-20 minutes in a small group, would be more than enough for Junior Infants. However, I noted my allocated time, altered my own class timetable somewhat and as a result began to use just 4 of the iPads as a station during literacy teaching time. After a few weeks, it began to become clear, that many teachers did not want to use the iPads at the same time every week and I became a little disheartened, as often as I passed the IT storage room, I saw the set of iPads sitting lonely in there. After a quick IT meeting, we decided to try a different approach. We recognised that all of the teachers have different experience of iPads themselves and because of that, each class would have a different need for them. Despite this, we still wanted the iPads to be utilised as much as possible and to become a regular part of our school life. We decided to put up a blank fortnightly timetable, where teachers could select a time/times that suit them and their individual plans/themes for that fortnight. The system has been in place for a few months, and it is working well. Ideally, I would love 4/5 iPads in my classroom all day everyday, but Santa wasn’t that generous this year! I like this system though, as I can plan to integrate the iPads into my lessons or alternatively, if there is a natural need/use for them, there is often an opportunity to book them for that very same day. They are still not used for some portions of the day, but that it ok, because at least we know that they are being used when they are needed. I know that this system isn’t perfect so I’d love to hear solution from other schools for effectively managing equipment, ensuring that the children are getting the most opportunities to use the technology meaningfully in their classrooms.
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by Margaret Keane on 21/04/2013 12:44:39
At Giftedkids.ie we get enquiries from teachers wanting information on how best they can support their students with Aspergers. Often these students have the potential to excel academically but find everyday classroom encounters and playground scenarios incredibly challenging. Time and again the two issues that come up on our twice exceptional board is that of sensory processing and social skills development. For instance the sensory overload that children with Aspergers experience within the school environment, from the hum of the interactive whiteboard to the noise of children’s chatter, can potentially create a painfully disorientating and at times frightening experience. Even something as simple as a buzzing insect can present difficulties. This sensory hypersensitivity can have a significantly detrimental effect on learning as commonplace sights and sounds interrupt concentration, cause distress and create behavioural flashpoints. All of which serve to isolate the child with Aspergers if not handled with sensitivity and understanding. Poor sensory processing together with a difficulty in reading non-verbal cues during social interaction can make the average school day an endurance test for a child with Aspergers. Thankfully new developments in edtech are coming up all the time on how best to engage and support these students. AUTI-SIM  It can be hard for teachers and other students to understand how a child with Aspergers sees the world around them and to truly grasp the difficulties encountered in everyday activities. After all how difficult can it be? A new virtual simulated playground produced on the UNITY platform called Auti-Sim seeks to help people understand these difficulties with a “playable simulation of sensory hypersensitivity”. Developed during Hacking Health Vancouver 2013 Hackathon, the player navigates through a playground as an autistic child with auditory hypersensitivity. Using a combination of the arrow keys, mouse or keyboard shortcuts to move around the space, the player encounters loud children causing sensory overload, impacting cognitive functions demonstrated by the screen blurring and increasing noise distortion. To be honest I had to turn it off after a couple of minutes such was the noise and sense of disorientation and as a player I automatically sought out the “quieter” areas of the playground. Very quickly you begin to understand why a child with sensory processing issues would choose to be alone in such a seemingly benign environment. From the comments posted on the simulation’s site there has been a mixed bag of response from the ASD community. Some say it represents this complex issue well whereas others say it doesn’t go far enough. This response I feel is indicative of the nature of ASD, it is a spectrum after all and sufferers’ experience of sensory overload will be individual to them. Overwhelmingly though the community welcomes the fact that it is helping to raise awareness about an often overlooked and certainly misunderstood issue. It could provide a useful tool for teachers in a CPD setting or be used as a discussion tool for students to bring about greater awareness and understanding of ASD. In my view anything that helps us to understand how these children negotiate the world is hugely beneficial to those of us who parent, teach or support them in some way. You will need to download UNITY web player to operate the simulation.
Secret Agent Society “Solving the Mystery of Social Encounters” I’ve long since thought that virtual worlds and game based learning could be hugely beneficial in teaching social skills to children on the ASD spectrum. From my experience kids with Aspergers love video games; it seems a very natural fit. Online interaction, for instance, dispenses with the social skills minefield that real life social encounters entail. What better way then to teach social skills and improve emotional intelligence than through a game where they can learn to “read” other people and to respond appropriately within a psychologically safe virtual environment. The Secret Agent Society is just such a game based learning programme aimed at 8 to 12 year olds with high functioning autism including Aspergers. Developed in Australia it is now available in Ireland through Social Skills Ireland and an adapted programme is being offered to schools for use in small group settings. At the heart of the programme is a multi-level video game where the child as the protagonist has to solve the mystery of social interactions, helping them to “crack the codes of emotions and friendships, bullying and friendly joking, conversations and coping.” In addition to the video game there are also board games and social skills workbooks. According to the website the aim of the programme is to aid social skills development and teach children: - How to recognise simple and complex emotions in themselves and others.
- How to express feelings in appropriate ways.
- How to cope with feelings of anger and anxiety.
- How to start, continue and end conversations and play activities with others.
- How to tell the difference between friendly joking and mean teasing.
- How to manage bullying.
- How to cope with making mistakes.
- How to handle new situations and ask for help when needed.
- How to make friends.
I haven’t seen this programme in action but a randomised controlled trial in 2008 has shown that children with Asperger Syndrome who participated in the early pilot programme showed greater improvements in social and emotion management skills than children who received treatment as usual for the two month intervention period. This was reported by both parent and teacher respondents. Research has also shown that these improvements in social functioning were maintained five months after the programme ended. Impressive results. However, it must be stated that one of the researchers involved was the original programme developer. That said, it shouldn’t detract from a fantastically innovative solution to social skills development for children with Aspergers. On a side note the programme has also been endorsed by the respected Asperger expert Tony Attwood who many practitioners and parents would be very familiar with. Additional Reading: Beaumont, R., & Sofronoff, K. (2008). A multi-component social skills intervention for children with Asperger Syndrome: The Junior Detective Training Program. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 743-753. 70 Tips & Tricks for Educating Students with Aspergers/High-Functioning Autism Video Clip from children's’ laminated TV series Arthur explaining Aspergers to children. Dual Exceptionality Recorded Webinar – Margaret Keane & Anna Giblin, Giftedkids.ie Dual Exceptionality Presentation – Margaret Keane & Anna Giblin, Giftedkids.ie
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by h2\slewis on 19/04/2013 11:30:00
 Everyone in education is talking about tablet computing. The days of comparing the various quirks of Interactive Whiteboards has ended and teachers are looking at the next big thing. At second level, tablets are an ideal technology resource, even if they simply just replace the textbook. However, at primary level, where we’re not so stuck to a textbook, tablets offer interesting discussion points.
Hot off the blocks to hit the education market were Apple with their iPad. Early adopters of tablets had only one realistic choice and the iPad was it. However, with the rise of Android and now the entry of Microsoft (and to a much lesser extent, Blackberry), we now have a number of major companies vying for a slice of the education market.
For me, a tablet has a couple of advantages over a laptop or desktop. The main one, for me, is the fact that they are instantly on. That is, you press a button and you can be online in less than 5 seconds. A Windows laptop or desktop takes about 1-2 minutes to get warmed up. Aside from that, tablets have a decent battery life and they are generally easy to use. The problems with some tablets are the lack of a keyboard, the lack of easy connectivity to a projector and the lack of Flash. Most of the problems above are easily rectified with a dongle or plug or some sort of other device. However, with regards to Flash, Apple (and, now, Android) say Flash is dead. I would argue that Flash is certainly not dead in the education sector. Almost all decent online educational content is written in Flash. I find it bizarre to hear people saying that there is no need for Flash or that one can download an app to watch Flash videos. I don’t want to watch Flash videos, I want to play games; and almost all educational games on the web are written in Flash. If Microsoft’s Surface does allow full Flash access, I think that they could be the victors in the war of the tablets at education level. I also think that if they sell the familiarity argument – i.e. all your PCs and laptops are Microsoft – this could be another feather in their cap. It’s a while since Microsoft have been the underdog in a technology fight but I think given the above weapons, it could be enough to bring them back to being the kings of the education sector.
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by Joanne Gilmartin on 15/04/2013 00:51:32
Augmented Reality (AR) has increased in popularity in recent years and indeed months. The infographic shown here gives an explanation of what AR is, it shows a timeline for the evolution of AR technologies and finally it illustrates the future of AR. In brief this technology makes QR codes look like a black and white television screen. We want content creation. We want autonomy. We want excitement. Like many others, I too have been impressed with the wow factor of Mobile Apps such as AR String. Nonetheless, I failed to translate this into the educational context for authentic learning experiences. There is only so many times you can watch an alien climbing out of the classroom floor or a dragon flying through the door. 
Aurasma is an app that allows the user to attach a picture, video or animation to any picture, poster or book cover. It takes us beyond advertising and gets the children thinking about what they would like to say when you scan a poster, book or their own picture.
My interest in this technology was reignited when I discovered the World Book Day 2013 books had their own AR app called ‘Books Alive’ available for iOS and Android devices. Many of the books for World Book Day were from authors that children already love. What a wonderful way for publishers and indeed authors to integrate technology and books to create a more authentic experience for their audience.
The following video is a very basic demonstration of Aurasma in Education. There is a wealth of instructional videos both from educators and from schools using AR technologies. Use of video to learn the workings of the Aurasma platform is more effective than following a list of instructions either through the app or online. There are a number of other AR apps currently available such as Layar. Other AR apps come with pre-loaded content such as AR Abacus, Morris Lessmore and his IMAG – N – O – TRON app and Lego Story Builder.
Aurasma is different to these because it does not require the user to make any purchases. The target image can be their own creation. The ‘aura’ they create is unique and they can then share their creation with another person if they too have downloaded the app.
This technology is just waiting to be used, it is not as difficult as it may seem to set up and the aura shown in the video clip below was created entirely on Aurasma on iPad. It is a very exciting technology with numerous potential uses in the classroom. So go on, check it out and show the world your aura! Aurasma in the Classroom–Augmented Reality
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