E-Skills and The Agency resources

E-Skills is the Sector Skills Council for Business and Information Technology, and works on behalf of employers to ensure the UK has the technology skills it needs to succeed in a global digital economy.

They are behind a number of initiatives such as Computer Club For Girls (now re-branded as CC4G.net at http://www.cc4g.net/ and open to boys too!), the 14-19 Diploma in IT and also the Big Ambition website (http://www.bigambition.co.uk) which has lots of interactive information for teenagers about careers in the IT industry.

They have developed some materials called The Agency, specifically for the Higher Diploma in IT but useful for any course - find this at http://diploma.e-skills.com/. What I particularly thought you might find interesting is the "How-to" sheets that come with this resource: these can be found at: http://diploma.e-skills.com/support-materials/.  These handouts for students can help them with various aspects of developing a multimedia project.

Do share any other useful resources you find on your blog. It's great to read of your first experiences of teaching whole classes.

Should we teach using pupils' own mobile phones?

Here's an interesting debate. This is copied from a blog by Frazer Spiers at: http://speirs.org/blog/2010/10/9/run-what-ya-brung.html.  Do read the whole piece.


"Go to any technology-in-education conference these days and you will eventually hear someone make the following claim:

In the future, we will teach using the mobile phones the kids bring to school with them.

The idea seems like a good one at face value. Here's how it goes: Schools have invested heavily in ICT and they're still miles behind the state of the art. Kids always have the latest stuff and we can't stop them bringing it to school. Let's use their mobiles as classroom ICT equipment!
It sounds great, right? It hits so many spots:

• Kids love their mobile phones, so they'll love whatever we teach with them!
• We are facing tighter financial times, so it'll save us tons of money!
• We can't be blocked by the IT guy!

Unfortunately, this is technodeterminist fantasy-land. This idea is both wrong in principle and unworkable in practice and it needs to be opposed."  (Frazer Spiers, October 9th 2010)

BBC Click online

Hope your first days at your secondary placement school go well!

BBC Click online (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/default.stm) is a useful resource which can keep pupils up to date with technology. It is a weekly television programme about what is happening in the world of technology and does appeal to teenagers. Although it is broadcast at some unearthly time on a Saturday morning, it is available on  I-Player to watch later.