Moving to Online Administration

I had an interesting meeting in the digital hub yesterday. It was my first time there. I really like the layout of the place with its mix of the old Liberties Dublin exterior and cool kitch plastic über modern interior. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how technology could improve the administration of … Read more

Fear of leadership

Whenever I tell anyone that I am a Principal, they look slightly in awe and fear..They always( 99%) say ” Wow, I don’t know how you do it…I could never do it..I would be scared…I couldn’t handle people…” The job of the Principal (when advertised) is usually ignored, many principal jobs have to be re … Read more

The 2009 Irish Interactive Whiteboard Survey

A lot has changed in the world of Interactive Whiteboards since 2008.  In fact, you could say the landscape has completely changed since last year.  When I gave this course for the first time, there weren’t a lot of Interactive Whiteboards to choose from in Ireland.  Essentially, you could divide your options in two; you could have a permanent IWB on your wall for around €6,000 or you could have a portable solution for about €2,500.  The Internet was your only hope of resources if you didn’t happen to own a Promethean or Smartboard.  Smaller companies were beginning to emerge but were hampered by exclusivity deals so no-one had really heard of them.  The debate was: is it really worth spending an extra €3,500 on a permanent IWB solution?

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Press Release from Flúirse

Irish Education Company leads the way by inviting teachers to co-design their own training!

2nd June 2009 – An Irish Education company is delivering a welcome positive message for teachers this Summer. Despite a challenging year which saw teacher / student ratios continue to increase, combined with the imposition of an effective salary reduction for teachers with the Government pension levy, Flúirse Education Solutions announced an innovative new approach to teacher’s annual summer training programmes…they’ve invited teachers to assist in designing their own courses!

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New NCTE course coming up…

The NCTE are finally embracing Web 2.0 and will be giving a course on blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 applications.  They’re currently looking for tutors, which means there will probably be holding courses by this autumn or next spring.  More information can be found at: http://www.ncte.ie/tutorapplications/

May 29th- what happened on this day?

I am fascinated by the amount of “International” and “Special” days there are in the world or even in one day! Let me share with you an important day coming up that you might be able to discuss with your class or even work on a lesson or two! On May 29th, there is an … Read more

Sunday Business Post: moving shapes around a screen

Because I always have a lot to say about IWBs, this is a separate article to the main Sunday Business Post article I wrote a couple of hours ago. If you haven’t seeen the other post, basically the newspaper did a seven page sepcial on technology in education. There were 3 articles about Interactive Whiteboards, none of which featured any feedback from schools that are using them. The marketing development manager of Steljes, Greg Tierney, was featured in the main article. Steljes are the people behind selling Smartboards (and they also sponsor an advertisement on Anseo.net). Some guy from GoInteractive and another somebody from 3M (huh?) were also featured in smaller articles.

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Thoughts on the Sunday Business Post

Today the Sunday Business Post published a 7 page special on technologies in education. It focussed on many aspects of ICT in all three levels of education. Amongst articles of interest to me as a primary school teacher were the NCTE’s plans to roll out laptops and projectors to us all, Interactive Whiteboards, Scoilnet’s services, Fís and a profile on constructionist learning in Gaelscoil Ó Doghair. I was not altogether happy with every article and below are my thoughts about each one.

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School Trips-Part 2

For those of you who might be new to the concept of a school trip, here are some good and practical words of wisdom! they might come in useful for the more experienced teachers too! (Main image from Scoil Treasa Naofa)

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