lizhitchcock

We think about links from the point of view of teaching and learning. We consider they are reflective - they encourage students (and teachers) to up their game which leads to improvement (eg in literacy when writing to your partner school or in communication skills when creating a presentation or resource). They also provide the 'global dimension' which is about young people appreciating other cultures and societies and their context in the world. This aspect is now throughout all QCDA requirements for the curriculum.

I have to admit that today Becta phoned me and I thought they were going to say... what are your brochures doing in the Learning and World Technology Forum when Microsoft, Promethean, Smart etc have all paid £xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to be there... (the sad truth being I took them in on my visitor's pass) but No, they were phoning to apologise that they'd taken from Friday evening to Monday morning to approve the wording on my email suggested to go to CLCs and local authorities... Finally perhaps we have come good. Or finally Becta has embraced ideology over idolatry. Perhaps teachers can even be allowed to exist using free and willingly shared technology rather than that which costeth a multi thousand of pound put-up-and-lose-morallys.

Here is what Intuitive Media do in a little visible nutshell... Weather Watch Phase 1 2008 We support/work with about six platforms/communities that offer this sort of rich online communicative experience and we're always open to hearing about new projects or things schools have developed on their own.

Stephen Heppell is looking at it now - he has just gone on the board of Intuitive Media who manage excellent safe social learning networks for schools. Extending Horizons

We are Stand Q28 - see BETT Hope to see you on the stand (and I have some of the brochures which I would most highly appreciate giving you a box of for your Stand).

Hi everyone - thanks for the support since I joined. I have mainly been trying to secure Becta's seal of approval for safe social learning networks in schools - particularly using communication technologies to build up fun partnerships with schools in other countries. Well over the wintry break, Becta came through. I have a 'supported by Becta' logo on my brand spanking new BETT brochure (and DCSF) and they contributed text saying that it supported progress towards Next Generation Learning. www.globalgateway.org/bett2010 Thanks for the help with it! Also... any chance I could pop to your stand and give you a box to give out? It is one of the intiatives at BETT that is most likely to be genuinely fun for teachers and learners. AND it works great with anything open source (which you can extend to your partner school), with mobile technologies, and is very useful because teachers in all subjects are interested. Let me know what you think of it! Liz

I'm not really looking for a deal; I'm looking for sponsorship - we currently have Intel, Promethean and Dell interested in giving stuff.

Sorry should have said that was text only. I have a completed version now with pix etc, which you can see at http://www.globalgateway.org/bett .

We got a Supported by Becta logo on to our BETT brochure about school linking. So now we have DCSF and Becta logos sorted out.

It deserves some interest from the rest of the teaching fraternity. We are really hoping to engage with schools willing to consider learning through projects, setting up networks that students can actually use in order to learn (online discussions, debates, surveys, webcasts, wikis)... we'd like to see school being as technology oriented as home, but with a learning outcome. We support international links as we think these are the most motivating. We manage eTwinning , Connecting Classrooms, and the International School Award. Check out my blog I have only just started it but would appreciate any comments.

We're running events and setting up area links with 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Let me know if you want to be involved. You can be involved formally (ie get funding, visit partner school, set up official project) or informally (through online collab. spaces). We are also setting up about 15 new links with China - groups of nine schools get to have partner schools in each link; it doesn't have to be about language learning it can be about ICT or cross-curricular. And we're running a World Cup project obviously based around African links, but some schools are using European and Latin American links. Let me know if you're interested and I'll IM you what is going on in your area (you need to include your LEA). Best Liz Happy Christmas too

We have this brochure (attached) can anyone feed back - does it work for a HOD or ICT coordinator strolling through BETT ? You are all invited to come by BC stand but be warned we aren't selling anything we're trying to give you funding!BETT promo brochure.doc

We have written a brochure for BETT. Please can ANYONE on Edugeek look at it for me to say if it would potentially arrest the attention of a passing ICT HoD or primary ICT coordinator. Pleeeeaaase?

End of term we reached our target of 3000 links that we have set up for schools in the UK. We actually had a thermometer on the wall that we coloured in, day by day.

Had Bucks meeting last week in High Wycombe and the 8 heads chosen to go to St Vincent & Grenadines are all fab and full of ideas. We've also had more than sixty applications from local authorities to link four of their schools with schools in Latin America, India and Sri Lanka, the panel to choose the 25 successful applications is on Jan 7th. The delegation is going in at the highest possible level so all the materials they share will be properly suited to curriculum requirements. I'm going to try and source a whiteboard for each of the eight partner schools so that webconferencing becomes a part of the link. I know from past experience that the teachers in SVG will be more interested in their own CPD while the UK staff are seeking impact on learners - linking is sometimes about resolving these two objectives so everyone wins.

End of term we reached our target of 3000 links that we have set up for schools in the UK. We actually had a thermometer on the wall that we coloured in, day by day. We have written a brochure for BETT. Please can ANYONE on Edugeek look at it for me to say if it would potentially arrest the attention of a passing ICT HoD or primary ICT coordinator. Pleeeeaaase?

Had Bucks meeting and the 8 heads chosen to go are all fab and full of ideas. The schools all have some sort of computer in them already, given by the Taiwanese, and so there are two main things - training and linking. Through a link with a school in the UK the training can be supported while at the same time providing access to learning materials that suit the training. The delegation is going in at the highest possible level so all the materials they share will be properly suited to curriculum requirements. I'm going to try and source a whiteboard for each of the eight partner schools so that webconferencing becomes a part of the link. I know from past experience that the teachers in SVG will be more interested in their own CPD while the UK staff are seeking impact on learners - linking is sometimes about resolving these two objectives so everyone wins.

Well we are off; yesterday I got the news that the Buckingshire area link with St Vincent & Grenadines (SVG) is going ahead. High Wycombe has a lot of SVG families who migrated back in the 50s and 60s; these projects will reflect this community and its history and also include curriculum links to human rights - namely fair trade, slavery ('resistance and rebellion'), MFL (French and Spanish is spoken) and a host of other stuff - arts, music obviously. How will it be done? I'm talking to Intel about supplying some ICT and sending over 8 heads and two LA people, one of which is head of ICT (and is probably on Edugeek if I looked). Bucks already shares a lot of its curriculum on its Moodle and I am hoping partner schools can do this too; with shared Moodle courses for some of the topics above that allow interraction and exchange to take place through webconferencing, discussion boards and so on. All the schools that particpate will be eligible to apply for funding for visits and projects over the next 3-5 years, so it should build into a really strong bond between Bucks and SVG. Jamaica anyone??

This is a funded, clustered link between four schools in UK and schools in India. It's official (must be acompanied by LA coordinator - we can help you arrange this) and fully funded - visits to partner schools take place in 2010 DEADLINE IS DEC 15. We are UNDERSUBSCRIBED for this programme! We are seeking schools committed to the idea of curriculum based dialogue, discussion, communication and collaboration using blogs, podcasts, wikis - working with their partner schools in UK and India. If you are working for an LA please take a look, the LA gets £1000 just for the admin and the money for the visit, to support and encourage these links. If you are interested (school or LA) please get in touch!!

I've sent IMs to everyone who asked - in an IM I can go into some detail about whether your local authority is eligible for an invitation to schools to apply for international programmes (which makes funding much more likely); what schools in your area (or even your own school LOL) is doing in terms of international work. We measure the school's commitment through a free accreditation framework Foundation, Intermediate and Full International School Award. Many schools are just reaccrediting for the FOURTH time. We have over 2000 on the Full Award and would like all schools to participate in global dimension, school linking, intercultural understanding and international communication! Keep posting (and let others know if the info I sent was handy!).

We have been doing video and video conferencing. Fun but difficult. The asynchronous methods work best for EA because of the time differences. Malaysia and Thailand both very engaged. We've just upgraded the student forums - try to get your students posting on there as it's really active. You can also ask the team to set up a specific forum for students to vote on a discussion topic or set them a discussion topic. Let Ozan or Andrew know and we will aim to support some good work that is student led. See our suggested projects at Connecting Classrooms Online Community | Developing International School Partnerships click projects.

How do we sign up, access information etc - register your school at Global Gateway Funding this term: Firstly we manage Comenius funding. You need a single partner school in Spain France or Germany for language exchange (secondary only) or more commonly a group of European schools including one other UK (optional but highly recommended) - around six is best. Find partners on http://www.etwinning.net or Global Gateway Apply for prep visit funding by mid December, visit partner schools, agree grant application, submit by Feb 15, wait till about May, be awarded funding hopefully, receive for two years starting Sept. In the mean time continue developing partnership using eTwinning. MORE IMMEDIATE FUNDING OFFER http://www.britishcouncil.org/connectingclassrooms - recruiting now for India & Sri Lanka and Latin America. Again, suggest you register on the Gateway because this is how you get information about all the various schemes as and when they happen, plus we support Connceting Classrooms by helping you form the requisite cluster. Deadline December 15. General overview of funding: Find funding Working with ICT: Teachers' ICT toolkit I will start the blog; thanx guys!

I love this site already btw. I am thinking of blogging about my current work with Becta, Naace, British Council, DCSF, QCDA and Janet. I am in a job whereby I try to get schools to take funding (we handle around £10M available each year), to build networks, get young people connecting and communicating and finding out what their peers in other countries think of the UK and want to find out about life in the UK. It is usually a complete revelation when they realise that young people worldwide are interested in the UK and what is going on. We link our projects to history, citizenship, arts, sport, science and geography. We support projects (investigative, live and real) about fair trade, water reserves, Islam, rights, cultural identity, climate change, the Olympics, slavery, music and technology. I've just returned from an inspiring event organised by Teach First and many of the teachers I spoke to thought that this would be effective for school improvement in the schools where they work. We have endorsement for what we do from all the above bodies. It is even on the SEF and is recognised by Ofsted (well we did our homework!). We support schools to realise this through learning platforms, mobile technologies, live interactions.... The good practice is out there - teachers are skyping, blogging and web-conferencing. Do you think people on EG are up for a blog about this?