HOW YOUR SCHOOL CAN MAXIMISE ITS ONLINE POTENTIAL

Matt Britland

Matt Britland Director of ICT at The Lady Eleanor Holles School

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Director of Realise Learning !

Twitter @mattbritland

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IT SUPPORT• Schools need to have cooperative IT

team

• Teaching and learning should drive technology in schools.

• Be clear about what you want and how it will support T/L

• Tell IT support when the software needs to be installed or when a website needs to be unfiltered etc

• Look at Internet control and content filtering solutions

WEB BROWSER• Make sure you are using an

up to date web browsers

• I always insist on Google Chrome

• Many websites do not work well or are not 100% compatible with some browsers / older browsers

• Use of cloud applications

SOCIAL MEDIA• Schools should embrace social media and not run

away from it

• It can be used for marketing as well as teaching and learning

• Collaborative

• Twitter accounts and Facebook groups

• It is free

• Embrace tools students are already using

• Show students how to use social media productively and safely

• Help students to understand the importance of online reputation

GOOGLE APPS / CLASSROOM• Google Apps are free for education

• Cloud document creation and storage

• Collaborative document editing

• Blogger, sites, forms and more

• Good to show student the advantages and disadvantages of using the cloud

• Google Classroom coming in September. Tools for teacher such as setting work, collecting work, marking work online etc.

EDMODO• Fantastic feel tool for teachers and

school

• Create a paperless classroom

• Create class groups, set work, collect work, mark work, keep track of progress, create quizzes, tests, online storage, synch with Google Apps and much more.

• Edmodo App Store

• Mobile apps available

WEBSITES / CLOUD APPLICATIONS• Blogging: Wordpress / Blogger • Padlet • Appshed • Code Avengers • SoundCloud / Audioboo • ThingLink • Pixlr • Socrative • YouTube • Screenr • Aurasma • Skype / Hangouts

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

• Do some research, read blogs and other websites

• Speak to other teachers; are tools being used in school that you don't know about?

• Check for education discounts

• Come up with a plan for implementing social media to put minds at rest and cover all bases

• Experiment

• Build relationships