Picnik

One of the issues constantly asked at meetings when teachers sit around and discuss ICT is "When will schools stop buying software?"

The evolution of the web has meant that many software packages used in school also have some kind of alternative which can be used online... for free. Schools have to make the decision whether they continue to buy expensive software or whether they use online versions. It's possible that in the future Microsoft Word and the Office suite in general become so expensive that schools stop buying them and go online instead.

We are currently considering upgrading our graphics software in upper Key Stage Two, so it was with great interest that I investigated Picnik, an online photo editing facility that has a stunning range of tools for manipuilating photos and other images. Whilst it may not have the range of a piece of software such as Photoshop Elements, it does the simple things for free. An added bonus is that it works seamlessly wth Flickr and Picasa.

Some of our students in P4 have started to use Picnik to do simple editing, such as red-eye removal. Future developments for Picnik look really exciting and it's definitely worth a visit.

You can go for a Picnik by clicking here!

Flickr Tools

Students in Computer Club and P4 have been experimenting with the Web 2.0 application Flickr. They have taken photographs, downloaded them onto their computer and then uploaded them to one of the Flickr tools availavable on the web. Below is a slideshow of some of the Computer Club images created by the Hockneyizer.



You can make your own Hockney images by visiting http://www.bighugelabs.com/flickr

Computer Club

Computer Club wll start this Thursday at 7.45 am for P6 students. Please make sure you return your permission slips to me as soon as possible.

Many thanks

Mr D

Kellett Blogging Community Expands

With the growing potential of Web 2.0 as a means of communicating within education, it's good to see that Year 7 students at Kellett have the opportunity to contribute to their learning online.

Kellett Secondary School has a number of subjct blogs which will be used throughout the year. It will be interesting to see how staff and students alike use this relatively new medium to support their learning.

Links to the Year 7 blogs can be found in the right had margin.

HKPU introduces Second Life

Last year we spent some time with P6 students discussing Second Life, a virtual 3-d world with many millions of users across the globe.

Saturday's SCMP reported that Hong Kong Polytechnic University now has an island in Second Life which is used to help new students get used to working with other students, meet their lecturers and take part in problems solving activities, all inside a virtual world.

This is another example of how education is using a non-educational application to enhance course work. With many schools now looking seriously at using Second Life, following examples set by those such as the Gifted and Talented Academy in the UK, it will be fascinating to see how the use of virtual environments can change the way we think about teaching and learning.

One project worth investigating further is the one carried out last year linking students in New York and Amsterdam. More details can be found at the Kids Connect web-site.

More History!

As if that wasn't enough for one day, today was the first day for Year 7 as they became the first members of Kellett Secondary School.



Apparently they did it all in one take... hard to believe!

P4-15 Make History!

Whilst it might not have been as good as Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket, P4-15 made history by becoming the first class in the new ICT suite.

Airbus A380 Lands in Hong Kong

Yesterday saw the 3rd landing of a new Airbus 380 Super Jumbo at Hong Kong International Airport on Lantau. This amazing plane is in the territory as a display at the Asian Aerospace International Expo and will also perform a flyby over Victoria Harbour.

Luckily, Mr Ali was on hand to video the plane landing... link below.

Digital Photography Competition

The winners of our Digital Photography Competition are now on display outside the ICT Room. Well done to you all and many thanks to all those that entered.

The subject of this year's competition, which will be in the Spring Term is 'My Travel'. Make sure you take your camera with you the next time you go on an outing or a holiday. Maybe you've already taken the photo that's destined to win! It could be that it's still on an old memory card or stored somewhere inside your home computer!

Good Luck!

P3 Pivots

Here are a couple of Pivots created by P3 last year. There will be more chances for students to extend their animation skills throughout the forthcoming year.