Ok, this probably isn’t the most useful resource that we have brought to your attention. But when you are having one of those teaching days that just goes from bad to worst and all you want to do is get your ‘wonderful’ year 9 group to be quiet, you might just find a use for this little tool.
Give it a go, it is bound to make you smile.
Click here to access The Drama Button
Thanks to Mark Clarkson for the heads up about this.
Students are usually fascinated to see how computers have changed over just a few decades.
It always amuses me to see their faces when I show them a picture of my very first computer, a BBC Micro, and tell them about the amazing new games I could play on it such as Pong and Space Invaders. I was well ahead of my time back then, being the only person in our village to own a computer. For a long time we were one of the most popular destinations for after school visits from my son’s friends.
However, if you ask students nowadays to tell you a bit about earlier computers then they will most probably shrug and get that familiar glazed look which tells you that they don’t have a clue what you are on about.
Now they will have no excuses for the next time you ask because the people over at the techking site have put together an amazing infographic detailing the history of computers from 1939 all the way up to 2010.
The infographic is broken down into decades and contains clear images, dates and a short text snippet about each type of computer. It would look great split into the different decades, printed out perhaps on photographic paper and used as part of an informative classroom display.
Access the infographic from here
When students use Google to search for information they probably find that many of their search results link to pages where the language is above their reading level and difficult to fully understand.
Did you know that you can use the advanced search feature in Google to either show the reading level of all search results i.e. basic, intermediate and advanced?
Alternatively, you can choose a specific reading level for the search results you would like shown i.e. you can choose to only show intermediate reading level results.
This is a really simple feature to use and we have created a step-by-step guide that can be printed in A4 and laminated for use as a reference source in the classroom.
Access the full sized A4 guide here
This is something we picked up from one of the teachmeet events (TES Article).
(here is a recorded teachmeet video).
It is a Google feature that has been around since 2009 and yet we did not know about.
You know the situation – you ask a student to do some homework on a fairly generic subject such as ‘computing’. So they go into Google and type in the search term ‘computing’.
Result: 149 million hits.
Now one option is to use the ‘Advanced’ feature to refine the result. But did you know about the ‘wonder wheel’?
Open Google with Firefox and enter the search term ‘computing’. As well as the usual list of hits, notice the items on the left hand side that include the clip below
Click on the ‘Wonder Wheel’ option and a mind map type of graphic appears that shows related search results. The student can then click on the branches to find more specialised results. It certainly seems a more user-friendly way of searching than the l boolean and other filtering methods of Advanced search.
Here is a Wonder Wheel of computing
If you haven’t come across the Icon Finder site then it is well worth a look.
Icon Finder is a search engine for high quality icons. Although it is primarily aimed at professional web designers there is no reason why your students can’t make use of the resources for their website design projects or for when they need to create a banner or logo image.
The icons are mostly available under a GPL or Creative Commons license so it is a good opportunity to remind students about searching for images that are not bound by copyright restrictions.
There are a number of different ways that you can search the site with filters for license type and image sizes. If you can’t think of a search term to use then use the ‘Browse’ menu to have a look through all of the icon sets.
There are currently almost 150,000 icons available in 731 sets which should be more than enough for most students students. If they can’t find exactly what they are after then they could always create their own and contribute them to the site.
The Freedom of Information Act was passed in 2000 but didn’t come into full effect until 2005. It is an important Act that has enabled us as individuals to access official information from over 100,000 public bodies and organisations. This information can include things such as e-mails, minutes of meetings, research, reports or bids for contracts.
Most A level syllabuses require that students learn about this Act but trying to excite and interest students in any of the essential Acts can at times be an uphill struggle.
However, there is a website called whatdotheyknow.com which allows people to explore the FoI requests made to UK government departments and public authorities.
How about setting your students the task of trying to find the most bizarre FoI requests? Here are a couple of suggestions you can use to demonstrate this idea:
- How much the BBC spends each year on chocolate digestives Click Here
- How many soft tissue toilet rolls the BBC uses each year Click Here
One of the problems with the FoI Act is the cost to the organisation of having to deal with so many requests and in particular obvious time wasting requests.
You could set a second task asking your students to find the most bizarre time wasting requests. Here are a couple of examples you can use to demonstrate this to students:
- How many employees at the BBC have stated their religion as Jedi? Click Here
- What percentage of the BBC license fee is spent by BBC employees on illegal drugs? Click Here
Students often need some background music or sound effects to use in their animation projects or podcasts.
Whilst many of them are perfectly happy to rip music from any source they can find regardless of copyright restrictions, we as teachers, should be guiding them to look for copyright free or creative commons sound tracks.
Here is a handy list of websites that publish Creative Commons audio (not in any particular order):
Music and backing tracks
Sound Effects
‘Caught in the Web’ is a programme that has been put together by Newsround as a resource to inform children about staying safe on the internet.
The video lasts just over 14 minutes and tells the story of a girl who gets into trouble after her virtual life in an online chatroom spills into the real world.
As well as the main story there are also real-life case studies showing a girl who has suffered from cyber bullying and a boy who became addicted to playing games.
The programme seems to be aimed towards upper KS2 or lower KS3 students and it would be a good resource to show for Safer Internet Day or as part of a scheme of work about online safety.
The video can be viewed online here