Spending your ICT Grant

Target Audience: Principals and ICT Co-ordinating Teachers

Date: Thursday 25th March

Location: Laois Education Centre

Places Available: - 25 Places

Objectives of this workshop:

• To enable schools to spend their ICT grants effectively ("New Classrooms ICT Grant" November and "ICT Infrastructure Grant" December 2009).

• To provide participants with practical ICT purchasing advice and ICT purchasing options.

• To provide participants with an insight into the future ICT infrastructural devlelopmnet of their schools.

Introduction to PCs and file Management (2.5 hours)

CODE: 10LS574

DATE: Tuesday 23 March 2010

TIME: 7.00 pm—9.30 pm

VENUE: Laois Education Centre

An Introduction to Internet & email course (Primary & Post Primary) (2.5 hours)

COURSE CODE: 10LS576

DATES: Monday 22nd March

TIME: 7.00pm—9.30pm

VENUE: Laois Education Centre

An Introduction Digital Media (5 hours) (Primary & Post Primary)

COURSE CODE: 10LS569

DATES: Monday 1 & 8 March 2010

TIME: 7.00pm—9.30pm

VENUE: Laois Education Centre

ICT & Maths (in collaboration with Project Maths) Post Primary

COURSE CODE: 10LS581

DATES: Saturday 17 & 24 April 2010

TIME: 9.30am- 3.30pm

VENUE: Laois Education Centre

Introductory Modules*: (Primary and Post Primary)

It is advisable that teachers intending to participate on the Project Maths course be comfortable with the following:

· Introduction to PCs and file Management

· Creating presentations and worksheets using ICT

· Introduction to Digital Media

· Introduction to the Internet and e-mail

Special Needs & ICT Learning Support Course (Primary)

COURSE CODE: 10LS572

DATES: Thursday 15 22 & 29 Apr & 10 May

TIMES: 7.00 pm—9.30 pm

VENUE: Laois Education Centre

Learning Support teachers at both primary and post-primary levels
Mainstream teachers who have students with learning difficulties in their class and teachers who have a large number of disadvantaged students in their class may also find this course useful.

The course is intended to provide teachers with information on ICT use in learning support, the confidence to introduce it into their own classes and specific strategies, tools and resources to use in the integration of ICT into the curriculum.

Aims to

• Explore ways in which ICT can be used to support individual students' needs
• Provide exposure to online resources/software which the teacher can use to remediate those needs
• Explore the use of ICT to motivate students and enable students and teachers to collaborate

Developing your school’s e-Learning plan

Introductory Workshop (1)

COURSE CODE: 10LS578

DATE: Tuesday 27 April

TIME: 7.00pm—9.00pm

VENUE: Laois Education Centre

Introductory Workshop (2)

COURSE CODE: 10LS577

DATE: Tuesday 23 March

TIMES: 7.00pm—9.30pm

VENUE: Tullamore Area

The NCTE’s new online course aims to help primary and post primary teachers integrate ICT across the school and into learning and teaching.

The course is itself an e-learning course which consists of five two-hour modules.

Scoilnet Maps Support Sessions - Basic and Advanced

COURSE CODE: 10LS580

DATE: Thursday 25 March 2010

TIME: 7.00 pm—9.30 pm

Venue: Laois Education Centre

Course duration:
This course consists of two modules each designed to be of 2.5 hours in duration.
Target Audience:
This course is aimed at post primary Geography teachers and has been designed to help them to integrate IT into their work in sourcing, developing and organising relevant digital resources. These support sessions will highlight how Scoilnet Maps can support the Geography curriculum and enliven the Geography classroom. The course will demonstrate how Scoilnet Maps provides access to all of Ordnance Survey Ireland’s maps and photographs as well as a range of European and world maps. Participants will also be shown how to access and utilise the Scoilnet Maps resources capability, which is a facility that provides teachers with thousands of resources and the option to develop, organise and even share their own resources too.
Course Content/Topics:
Scoilnet Maps Support Session – Level 1 (BASIC) 2.5 hours
Based on using the website, the basics covers:

• Logging on
• Website Layout and the Toolbar
• Selecting Maps
• Search
• Printing
• Measuring Distance

Scoilnet Maps Support Session – Level 2 (ADVANCED) 2.5 hours
Building on the skills covered in the basics course, the advanced course will cover:

• Resources Explorer and Searching
• Uploading Resources
• Working with Uploaded Resources to Create Playlists
• Creating Pupil Accounts
• Finding and Viewing Thematic Data

Pre-requisites:
Participants attending this course must be familiar with using the Internet & Email, uploading and downloading files, as well as the basic ICT tasks (opening, editing, saving, closing files, etc).

Computer maintenance & useful applications for creating teaching resources course (Post-Primary)

COURSE CODE: 10LS573

DATES: Wednesday 3 10 24 March: 14 21 & 28 April

TIME 7.00pm– 9.30pm

VENUE: Laois Education Centre

Using ICT as a Teaching & Learning Resource

COURSE CODE: 10LS582

DATE: Dates to be decided

TIME: 7.00 pm—9.30 pm

VENUE: Laois/Offaly Area

Participants should have some experience of using a mouse, a keyboard and carrying out basic ICT tasks (opening, editing, saving, closing files).

Course Content: The aim of the course is to provide curricular and hands-on support to primary teachers so that they may explore how technology can motivate, facilitate and support better learning in general and especially in cross-curricular projects.

This course encourages a hands-on approach to learning. Each module begins with a curricular exemplar, is followed by cycles of ‘learn and practice’ and finishes with an in-depth discussion on classroom implementation – from curricular as well as classroom management perspectives.

The course uses a variety of technology tools including the Internet, digital photography, open source software or freeware that will be accessible to all teachers. Participants, working individually or in groups, will use these tools to build a curriculum resource that can be shared with other teachers on the course and used in the classroom.

To ensure practicality and relevance for each participant, each module will look at managing ICT in different classroom environments and how ICT can assist in providing for individual learning needs (for example children who need more challenge, children with specific learning needs, etc).

ICT & Gaeilge (Post—Primary)

COURSE CODE: 10LS556

DATES: Dates to be confirmed. Contact Laois Education Centre. Interested participants may leave their name in Laois Education Centre and they will be contacted as soon as dates are confirmed with the Tutor.

TIMES: 6.30-9.00pm

VENUE: Laois Education Centre

Introductory Modules*: (Primary and Post Primary)

It is advisable that teachers intending to participate on the ICT & Gaeilge course be comfortable with the following:

· Introduction to PCs and file Management

· Creating presentations and worksheets using ICT

· Introduction to Digital Media

· Introduction to the Internet and e-mail

Creating your School’s Website using Scoilnet Blogs

COURSE CODE: 10LS571

DATE: Monday 19 & 26 April

TIME: 7.00pm—9.30pm

VENUE: LAOIS EDUCATION CENTRE

Are you looking for an easy way to set up your school’s website?
Or, would you like to set up a blog for your school?

This course provides you with the skills to do both, using NCTE’s new blogging service for schools, Scoilnet Blogs.

Course duration:
This course is 5 hours in duration.

Target Audience:
This course is aimed at primary and post primary ICT Co-ordinating teachers, or any other teachers, who are interested in administering their school’s website. The Scoilnet Blogging service provides schools with a centrally hosted, free online environment and tools to create and host a dynamic and vibrant school website which can be contributed to by all teachers.

Course content:

• Why set up a school website
• Creating your website
• Adding and administering users
• Adding content, including text, images, video, blogs, podcasts and multimedia
• Adding extra features to your website

Pre-requisites:
Participants attending this course must be familiar with using the Internet & Email, uploading and downloading files, as well as the basic ICT tasks (opening, editing, saving, closing files, etc). This is not a beginner’s course.

As the course is based on the Scoilnet Blogging service, it is a pre-requisite for teachers attending, that their school either already has their Scoilnet Blog account, or has applied for one. To apply for your Scoilnet Blog account, log on to www.ncte.ie/Broadband/Webhosting-Blogging/

Web 2.0 in Learning & Teaching (Primary & Post Primary)

COURSE CODE: 10LS570

Tuesday 13, 20 April and 4 May 2010 (Please note change of date)

TIME: 7.00– 9.30pm

VENUE: Laois Education Centre

Each module has been designed to be of 2.5 hours in duration Course duration:
This course consists of three modules based on using Web 2.0 in an educational context. Each module has been designed to be of 2.5 hours in duration

Target Audience:
These modules are aimed at primary and post primary teachers who are interested in integrating Web 2.0 technologies into learning and teaching.

Course Content/Topics:
There are three modules in total:

1. Introduction to Web 2.0 Tools

This is the first of the 3 modules of Web 2.0 for Learning, and provides an introduction to web 2.0 tools and their uses in education. It also gives an overview of Wiki’s, RSS feeds and aggregators as well as social bookmarking and provides the basic skills required to use these tools in an educational context, along with internet safety and copyright considerations.

2. Introduction to Blogging

Module 2, Introduction to Blogging, provides an overview of blogging in education, including curricular uses and examples of Irish schools’ blogs. It also provides the skills required to create a blog (using Scoilnet Blogs), to post to a blog and to add digital content in other formats (images, video, etc) to your blog.

3. Introduction to Podcasting

Module 3, Introduction to Podcasting, provides an overview of podcasting in an educational context which includes possible curricular uses and examples of podcasts created by Irish schools. This module also provides participants with the skills required to create a podcast and to upload their podcast to their school’s blog (using Scoilnet Blogs).

Pre-requisites:
These introductory modules are suitable for both primary and post primary teachers who wish to extend their capacity to use a range of Web 2.0 tools in support of learning and teaching in the classroom environment.

This is not a beginner's course. Participants should be familiar with uploading and downloading files and be comfortable with basic ICT tasks (opening, editing, saving, closing files, etc). They should have some experience of browsing the Internet and be familiar with using e-mail.