Coronavirus: Coping in education: links, resources, tips and IT concerns

[elsiegee40]

Zoom is temporarily lifting the 40-minute time limit on free Basic accounts for schools affected by the Coronavirus.

 

https://zoom.us/docs/ent/school-verification.html

[Ditto]

PurpleMash and Mathletics seem to buckle/collapse this morning for primary school child. Hegarty Maths and Frog struggling too for secondary school child. Cloud elasticity is going to be seriously tested over the next few weeks.

[StoneGroup_JackW]

hi @sonofsanta yes we have laptops in stock and yes we can do them comfortably at that price with immediate despatch. both home and pro licenses available. sent you a PM directly thanks! Jack

[ibpalle]

Hi all

 

A new addition to the Smoothwall webpage summarising the services options Smoothwall offer to assist with remote learning/working etc.

[elsiegee40]

Online Safety materials from CEOP/ThinkUknow that can be use at home. Different materials for different age groups

 

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/support-tools/home-activity-worksheets

[VeryPC]

Has anyone got any idea where decent laptops can still be sourced at a reasonable price for home users? I keep getting asked by staff and parents but stock is lower than I've ever seen it. I dunno if @VeryPC, @StoneGroup_JackW, @ICTDirect_Dave or others are doing anything for home users, but eBuyer, Amazon and CurrysPCWorld are all a wash right now--nothing below £500, and those aren't much cop either. It'd be mighty handy if anyone wanted to start offering a decent spec machine (i.e. Core or Ryzen, 8GB, SSD) and not terrible prices for our home users right now!

Hi, sorry for the delayed response to this, but I wanted to check with our sales and purchasing teams and get up to date info to make sure i don't sell you a wrong un.

 

As it stands, VeryPC have access to stock of Tier 1 laptops and other hardware through the UK tech trade channel. We can have individual items drop shipped directly to home addresses.

 

Obviously this may change as we can't predict when certain options may become unavailable in this evolving situation, but for now we can help if parents, students, homeworkers etc need computing tech sent to their homes.

 

- Al

Edited March 25, 2020 by VeryPC
Formatting

[jamesleonard]

Hi EDUGeek community -- in addition to the resources I posted earlier on this thread, the Google for Education is hosting a UK Distance Learning Webinar this Friday at 12:30 at this livestream: youtube.com/watch?v=H5bMJe4B-ZY. Full details below:

 

~~~~~

 

Join the Google for Education team to learn how to get started with G Suite for Education and explore ways to use the tools for distance learning. You’ll also hear from LEO Academy Trust who are successfully teaching their students from home. If you’re a teacher, school leader or IT admin, this session will provide the first steps for getting your school and teachers up and running with Google Classroom, Hangouts Meet and more.Join us at 12:30pm on Friday 27th March: youtube.com/watch?v=H5bMJe4B-ZY

[Brimstone]

Apple have announced availability of Remote Home Learning guides with more to follow....

 

https://video.ibm.com/apple-edu-learning-series

[sonofsanta]

Hi, sorry for the delayed response to this, but I wanted to check with our sales and purchasing teams and get up to date info to make sure i don't sell you a wrong un.

 

As it stands, VeryPC have access to stock of Tier 1 laptops and other hardware through the UK tech trade channel. We can have individual items drop shipped directly to home addresses.

 

Obviously this may change as we can't predict when certain options may become unavailable in this evolving situation, but for now we can help if parents, students, homeworkers etc need computing tech sent to their homes.

 

- Al

 

 

Thanks Al--should I point them at any particular email address if they want to request something, or should I liaise directly with my account manager?

[6Foot2]

Link 1: Free Educational Content in Minecraft Marketplace! [Minecraft]

 

FREE EDUCATIONAL CONTENT IN MINECRAFT MARKETPLACE!

 

Venture into digital worlds instead of the real one!

 

The world is upside down right now. We’re learning lots of new phrases like social distancing, contact tracing, and stop snacking just because you’re bored. Everyone around the world is coming together to do their part, whether that’s working on finding a vaccine, delivering food and supplies, or staying indoors. Whatever the case, all of our daily routines have been thrown completely out of whack. It’s easy to get scared at a time like this, which is why focusing on something can help you stay calm.

 

Educators around the world are doing everything they can to provide digital lessons for the half a billion students who are out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is not an easy task and we want to do our part to help keep young minds sharp and stimulated.

 

If you head over to the Minecraft Marketplace, you will find some of our favorite lessons from Minecraft: Education Edition in a brand new Education category. These educational worlds can be played on your own, with your kids, parents or friends. From the comfort of your home, you can tour the International Space Station or even explore the inside of a human eye. We’ve also included ten worlds from our Marketplace creator community! Thanks to creators Everbloom, Jigarbov, Lifeboat, Razzleberries, The World Foundry, Blockworks, and Imagiverse you can explore renewable energy, marine biology, Greek history, and more! The worlds include lesson plans like creative writing activities, build challenges, and tricky puzzles.

 

All of these worlds are launching today and are free to download through June 30, 2020.

 

Anyone with Minecraft for Bedrock platforms can find these worlds by launching Minecraft and visiting the in-game store. Minecraft is available on Android & iOS, Kindle Fire, Windows 10 PC, Gear VR, Oculus Rift, Fire TV, Xbox One, Windows MR, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4.

 

You can find the complete content list here: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/marketplace/education

 

To learn more about distance learning with Minecraft: Education Edition, visit: https://aka.ms/remote-learning-blog

 

Stay safe, wherever you are. We’ll get through this.

 

Link 2: Minecraft Marketplace | Minecraft Education Collection

[sonofsanta]

Just written up this guide on video calls in Microsoft Teams, if it's useful to anyone else. We've disabled private calls and asked staff to only use Meetings, as it's more accountable and avoids accusations of private phone calls taking place. Video Calls in Microsoft Teams.docx

[VeryPC]

Thanks Al--should I point them at any particular email address if they want to request something, or should I liaise directly with my account manager?

Yep [email protected] or 0114 321 8609 option 1

 

Won't hurt to mention that they are a parent at your school.

 

Cheers,

 

- Al

Edited March 25, 2020 by VeryPC

[caffrey]

Not sure if this is any good, but it's free

 

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/

[6Foot2]

Link: The Maths Factor : Homepage - make Carol Vorderman your child's online maths tutor

 

Following the Government’s decision to implement widespread school closures across the UK to minimise the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). We will be making The Maths Factor FREE for everyone (usually about £2 per week) to support childrens’ continued learning at home for the duration of the UK Schools closure period. We want to help you and your child as much as we can.

 

https://youtu.be/TxqOLwyKtE4

[6Foot2]

This from our PE Department who are involved with running a skeleton school for our pupils whose parents are key workers:

 

Link: Physical Education – Advice for schools that are still open [Association for Physical Education]

 

The main advice that we can give at this time is to follow government guidelines.

 

Staff should select low risk activities, in order to minimise accidents requiring hospital admission, and choose appropriate activities where social distance can be achieved. It doesn’t have to be formal PE. We need to be adaptable during these unprecedented times.

 

The statement from the Department for Education is that schools should continue to provide care for a limited number of children.

 

The key information for school staff from all government departments can be found at www.gov.uk/coronavirus

 

The simple message is each school needs to make a decision on the activities they offer during the school day. When being physically active, as with all other activities participants should have minimal social contact and practise good hygiene.

 

In addition to the link above, you can access Government guidance for schools and other educational settings HERE.

[6Foot2]

A suggestion from our Art department for those who are running a skeleton school (as we are) of for those who have their own charges at home:

 

 

 

[TimStannard]

Just written up this guide on video calls in Microsoft Teams, if it's useful to anyone else. We've disabled private calls and asked staff to only use Meetings, as it's more accountable and avoids accusations of private phone calls taking place. [ATTACH]57352[/ATTACH]

 

Thanks for this. Your document says "There's no way of making a meeting private, unfortunately: anyone in the Team can join if they're online at the time. We have disabled private one-to-one calls for safeguarding reasons, so you will need to make students aware of your expectations:" (my underline).

 

How did you prevent staff staff creating a team including just themselves and one student, and thus create a private 1:1 meeting? I can't figure a way to do this.

[elsiegee40]

English with Holly. KS 2-3 English lessons delivered via Facebook (Platform = I know [emoji849])

 

https://www.facebook.com/englishwithhollytutoring/

Edited March 29, 2020 by elsiegee40

[sonofsanta]

Thanks for this. Your document says "There's no way of making a meeting private, unfortunately: anyone in the Team can join if they're online at the time. We have disabled private one-to-one calls for safeguarding reasons, so you will need to make students aware of your expectations:" (my underline).

 

How did you prevent staff staff creating a team including just themselves and one student, and thus create a private 1:1 meeting? I can't figure a way to do this.

 

 

I confess I'd not thought about that (the risks of pushing stuff out with minimal testing and planning!)--but that's still less of an issue than a private call, as we as admins could still see the existence of the Team in the admin backend, and if we added ourselves into the Team we'd still see the existence of all the meetings.

 

TBH it's as much about protecting ourselves from accusations under these circumstances--if a parent says someone has been private video calling them, we can point to the measures we've taken to protect the students.

 

I wonder if you can set recordings to happen automatically, actually--I know that O365 global admins can automatically view them even if they weren't a participant. That'd be an extra measure of protection.

[elsiegee40]

Ancestry, the family history website, has made most of its records free to everyone.

 

It also has lesson plans on various historical topics

 

https://www.ancestryk12.com/k12/Resources/?o_xid=107566&o_lid=107566&o_sch=Email+Campaigns

[6Foot2]

Link: Mapbox Colouring Book [Presentation: 27-page PDF]

 

A map coloring book from your working-from-home friends at Mapbox

[mrstrong]

Audible free for some stories:

 

https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

[Ditto]

I've seen a few mentions on the use of 'dongles' for children who have been provided with a laptop/chromebook but not have an internet access at home. Are these 4G mobile network connections? What sort of cost are you looking at? Any recommendations?

[6Foot2]

Link 1: Darts Maths [Free for 60 days]

 

 

Link 2: Genee Explorer

 

Welcome to Genee Explorer. Genee Explorer is a search engine tailored for children with custom developed graphics and animations to make searching the internet for information or images fresh and fun. Explore the internet in a fun, safe and category led style with links to key subject areas. View our colourful custom made child friendly graphics, search Google and Bing images and retrieve key information from Wikipedia. Turn on or off text labels to test a students ability to identify objects, places, people and things. Test your skills at identifying by learning to match the pictures and reveal the names to aid comprehension, memory and learning. Go on a digital safari and explore different animals online and discover the animal kingdom with the Genee Explorer Animals package. Discover and learn fun facts about mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, fish and aquatic animals, insects and minibeasts. Discover the technology that powers us through our Science and Technology content, the natural features that wow us through our Geography and Nature packages and explore the many things we may find on our planet and beyond.

 

A partly completed Genee image search:

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by 6Foot2
Add another free resource.

[elsiegee40]

Kent County Council Safeguarding Advice (applies to all counties though)

 

https://www.theeducationpeople.org/blog/covid-19-update-from-the-safeguarding-service/

 

KCC has produced an addendum to this advice

 

The Education Safeguarding Service have drafted a Covid-19 Child Protection Policy Addendum for schools, colleges and other educational settings to use for their child protection policies in response to the DfE Coronavirus (COVID-19): safeguarding in schools, colleges and other providers guidance published on the 27th March 2020.

 

Schools and colleges will need to amend the template to ensure it reflects their current safeguarding arrangements and local context. The term schools/colleges has been used throughout, however other educational settings may find it helpful to use the document as a basis for their own requirements. Please note, this template may be adapted regularly to reflect changes to local and national guidance and legislation; leaders and DSLs should ensure they use the most recent version. Version 1 was posted on (date so 1/4/20 if it goes live today!).

 

Educational settings should contact their Area Safeguarding Advisor if they have any queries.

 

https://www.theeducationpeople.org/blog/covid-19-child-protection-policy-addendum-for-schoolscolleges-available/