Sorry for the 2 Month absence but I am now back. I have been busy applying for new jobs and getting the ICT coursework marked....life of a teacher......
Anyway....Below are some great links that have been together which you may find useful!
BBC Webwise If you don't know the first thing about web publishing but find yourself responsible for building a school site, try the BBC Webwise guide.
Becta A government agency which promotes the best use of ICT in schools, Becta runs the annual school and college website competition and ICT in Practice awards, recruits teachers for its focus groups, administers a support network directory and publishes regularly on school-related subjects.
CNet Builder Relatively hardcore technical tips for those using HTML and other programmin languages to build their own sites. It may not be intelligible when you start out, but later on the advice should prove useful.
Edex Edex specialises in broadband technology, and was responsible for the 'virtual, hologrammatic teacher who can teach in one classroom and be artificially generated in another. The 'briefcase technology' caused a great stir at the 2000 BETT show.
Glusburn Primary Glusburn is participating in the Leeds university NIMIS project, and a class of 23 KS1 children are experimenting with a huge touch screen and five computers. During a lesson on shapes, for example, some of them draw on the screen with a finger, others manipulate shapes on the smaller screens with an electronic pen, while the rest take part in more traditional activities.
ICTeachers A useful site for teachers by teachers that reviews new products and offers resources and support for anyone implementing ICT in the classroom. The resources section looks particularly useful, with a range of file types catering to genuine difficulties beyond the ICT brief. Standouts include suggestions for dealing with literacy planning in vertically grouped classes, recommended extracts for Year 4 literacy planning and a topic plan on Invaders and Settlers.
Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education High-level publication concerned with the classrooms of the future and the role played by AI in developing new technologies for education.
Juniors Juniors.net is a colourful, interactive website for seven to 11-year-olds, their parents and teachers. Slick graphics and funky colours combine to create a visually appealing site. Children log on to complete curriculum based activities, earning J-points which they can then use to create robots or pop stars to do battle with other children on the site. Parents log on to their own section to follow their child's progress and to read tips for motivating children and becoming more involved in their education.
Light on the net project Often it takes a single, well executed idea to make a website, and this is a case in point. Simply put, a camera points at a bank of lights in a Tokyo lab. By clicking on the lights in the picture the user can turn them on or off, writing messages or drawing pictures. it's fascinating to see the children grasp the idea that other changes are being made at the same time by other people from around the world. Teaching control in ICT can be a tricky exercise, but this very simple tactile model will delight pupils and will communicate far more in five practical minutes than would be possible in an hour of theoretical teaching.
Managed Services If your school is about to invest in new ICT equipment and you would prefer to delegate the job, the NGfL's Managed Services will take care of choosing and buying it.
Managing ICT in schools and colleges A site for all ICT teachers to hold up to sceptical members of staff asevidence that computers don't always increase workloads. The advice to ICTmanagers and co-ordinators is solid and intelligent, whilst the freedownloads for reducing bureaucracy are nothing short of inspired. Who coulddoubt the genius behind an Excel spreadsheet which records homework excuses(including those all time greats, 'Felt too depressed' and 'Ate too much')and alerts teachers to pupils using the same excuse more than once?
The Mouse Club A fantastic resource for teaching young children the basics of IT. Through interactive games such as noughts and crosses, hide and seek and dot-to-dot the site cunningly disguises the teaching of keyboard skills and the rudiments of mouse control. With bright colours and humorous animation it's fun for adults too. Excellent.
National Association for Co-ordinators and Teachers of IT Explains the Association's history and reason for being - 'To advance for the public benefit by promoting and assisting in the promotion of the teaching and co-ordination of Information Technology in schools'. Six editions of the in-house journal Integrate are available to read online, and - if you decide to join - there is also a member's area. Email addresses to the ACITT executive are provided.
National Curriculum (ICT) Outlines the National Curriculum requirements for Information and Communications Technology at all key stages.
The NIMIS Project The homepage of Network Interactive Media in Schools, which with EU help is currently funding Glusburn (op.cit.) alongside similar projects in Portugal and Germany.
The Node The Node is a US non-profit organisation promoting the use of technology in education. The site itself is a terribly serious affair, with a database of technologies involved in online education, a set of technology trainers and a huge range of articles on many aspects of the subject. For ICT teachers, particularly those looking for help in teaching web authoring and multimedia applications, this could be of great use.
Performing with ICT Impressive new site that sets out best practice examples of schools using ICT to enhance the performing arts. Click on Resource to access the classroom activities.
Sense Internet Sense are a team of designers who have developed homes on the internet for a huge range of companies, not the least of which is Yorkshire Electricity, whose Claude the Sheep game has developed something of a cult following. While corporate sites aren't usually featured here, this has such a crisp and clear design that it could be a useful exemplar for pupils designing their own pages, and it features an excellent online glossary of internet terms which could prove useful either for staff training or to support pupils not yet au fait with the key concepts.
Superhighway Safety The government's official guide to using the internet in schools. Good for beginners and those concerned about pornography, paedophilia and other bugbears.
Survey of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Schools The 1998 survey was carried out on a representative sample of 1,211 primary, 1, 452 secondary and 594 special schools in England. 938 primary, 977 secondary and 453 special schools replied to the survey giving response rates of 77%, 69% and 76% respectively. See the results here.
Teach Me Online Online training courses for ICT skills are becoming more and more common, but this is one of the few which is kind enough to offer a free trial. The courses range from very simple introductions to the internet to more complex tutorials on HTML and Graphic Design. For stressed out ICT co-ordinators trying to train a whole staff at different levels of ability, this could be a very useful resource.
Think.com Think.com provides older children with a password-protected space where they can develop their own websites. Children can access their account from any internet connected computer and the idea is that they will work on their site at home and at school. This is a site that will require some computer confidence for parents to really get to grips with it, although free online training is available. Using Think.com at home would be valuable if your child already uses it at school, otherwise web design is probably best left to the very computer confident.
Webmonkey Kids As more and more emphasis is placed on the internet in the ICT curriculum, teachers are under increasing pressure to introduce children to HTML and its attendant trials and tribulations. Webmonkey have recognised this need, and put together a fantastic site, taking children through a step-by-step process towards creating their own web pages. The delivery is simple and fun, but it never shies away from tackling more advanced issues such as frames and animated GIF's, and before you know it your child will, as the monkey says, be ready to send their weird ideas out into the world.The adult version,
Webmonkey, is just as invaluable for adult learners.
Web Sites That SuckHow not to build a webpage - and the most common errors to avoid. Vastly entertaining, this site links to some of the worst abuses of cyberspace.
Enjoy surfing!
As ever 
