FOBISSEA Ed Tech Conference @ Taipei European School

This weekend saw the 3rd FOBISSEA ICT conference for Primary ICT leaders being held at TES, Taipei. The city was a great surprise to me and held vast appeal for a techie and for somebody who loves Asia but would require the polite orderly-ness of mainland Europe. 

The Conference was again a relaxed affair with conversation flowing from one topic to the next. Below are a few snippets from the site we all contributed to and some of the links from last year's conference too. Lots of links and resources for teachers and pupils alike.

Flat Classrooms: What are they?

The Flat Classroom Project is a global Hands-on working together project for middle and senior high school students. It was founded by Vicki Davis (Westwood Schools, USA) and Julie Lindsay (Qatar Academy, Qatar) in 2006.

The Project uses Web 2.0 tools to make communication and interaction between students and teachers from all participating classrooms easier. The topics studied and discussed are real-world scenarios based on 'The World is Flat' by Thomas Friedman.

Below from Julie's site is a slide show detailing the Flat Classroom. The Flat Classroom Project will take you there.

 

 

 Links, Resources and Goodies

The great thing about these conferences is the wealth of resources that come bundles with them. This year didn't dissappoint. Below are the list of web resources and applications that will undoubtedly go into this year's requisition.

 

Applications:

 

A review of lots of sites and progrms for learning - www.educationalfreeware.com
48 Free Microsoft Apps www.techradar.com 
Education City - online learning platform in modules for the Primary age range.

Aggregators

Make Use Of http://www.makeuseof.com/

 

Games

 

Fantastic Contraptionhttp://fantasticcontraption.com/ Similar to Armadillo Run (try embedding to avoid adverts)
Armadillo Run http://www.armadillorun.com/ Simulations

Maths

 

Maths moves youwww.mathmovesu.com/  - a game like situation for maths
 
2diyarchive www.2diyarchive.co.uk/ excellent resources for 2DIY
Birchfield http://www.birchfield.co.uk/ - VLE content pack apparantly compatable with the majority of SCORN based VLE's.

Timelines


Dipity www.dipity.com -timelines, goes back to about 100AD, dates, maps (great for explorers/adventures), children can comment, use flip books, youtube videos, give kids the same login so that they can do collaborative work from home

Presentation

 

Vuvox  www.vuvox.com/ more ambitious than animoto, timelines, storyboard, glossary, hotspot
Prezi http://prezi.com/ replaces powerpoint, timelines
Edu Glogster http://edu.glogster.com/ -Interactive posters, kids in the class can comment on friend's poster (you need a good internet connection) An example of using Edu.glogster - not a particularly good one!  http://bertjacha.edu.glogster.com/school-council/
SSUUhttp://issuu.com/ make it in word and upload, magazines, newspapers, scan as pdf and make a book, or make a flipbook and embed

Video and sound Editors (online first)

 

Creazahttp://www.creaza.com/ -all in one package for movie making (integrates with Fronter)
Jamendo http://www.jamendo.com/en/ - Need an account, but also an alternative to Garage Band
Myna http://aviary.com/tools/myna - Online version of Garage Band

Collaboration:

 

Voice Thread: www.voicethread.com - very good voice and image collaboration site.
Primary Padhttp://primarypad.com/ realtime collaborative writing
Pirate Padhttp://piratepad.net/
Etherpadhttp://etherpad.com/ realtime collaborative writing
Wall Wisher - http://www.wallwisher.com/ online post it note, great for homework.
Mind42 - http://www.mind42.com/ Free online mind mapping
Shelfari - http://www.shelfari.com/ online book club for librarians

EAL/ ESL - Languages

 

BYKIhttp://www.byki.com/ creates online flash cards (great for MFL teachers)
Frenglyhttp://www.frengly.com/ Online translation
Tools for Primary School - www.primaryschooltools.com - This is my colleague's collection of links from BISV
Free Tools http://web2educationuk.wetpaint.com/ - reviewed by the author
NCH Softwarewww.nch.com.au Sound conversion software 

Animation:

 

Kahootzhttp://www.kahootz.com/kz/ 3D Modelling
Scibble Maps http://scribblemaps.com/
Dino Mixerhttp://www.dinomixer.com/ itouch app, great for KS1

Imaging - Web based


Word it Out http://worditout.com/ Similar to wordle
Tagul http://tagul.com/ Similar to wordle
Posterazor http://posterazor.sourceforge.net/ -Makes huge posters
Big Huge Labs http://bighugelabs.com/ 
Picasahttp://picasa.google.co.uk/ Print huge pictures
Clevrhttp://www.clevr.com/Will make panoramic pictures