New website coming!

Staff at Park View CLC are beside themselevs with excitement about the upcoming new website which will be hosted here. Those of you with a nostalgia for poorly constructed websites might want to check out our old site before it is subsumed by our new IMPROVED site.

Of course, it'll take us some time to populate the website properly - we're looking at September for it be nice and full! We'll be uploading session info, worksheets, reports, media an other stuff. The idea is to make it easier to see what we do and what we can do for you.

This blogsite will continue to be updated regularly. Thanks to all who have visited!

Powerpoint comedy?

You wouldn't think Powerpoint would be a rich vein for comedy, but these videos might change your mind. I'm still trying to find some better quality versions, but for now have a look at these. They'd be useful to show just before someone presents their own Powerpoint!

Survey tool - teachers

Here is the link for teachers to use to take our survey:

Click here to take my survey

Using ICT in RE

This week we are running the first of our "Places of Worship" sessions. This involves researching the symbols, objects and requirements of religious places. Pupils will use our specially created website to research links and then create a paper-version of their design. They will then use Google Sketchup (see earlier blog post!) to create a 3d representation of their space.

We are then going to send on their designs to the relevant faith community representatives in Birmingham to assess how appropriate the design is for the needs.

Web 2.0

This post isn't designed to explain Web 2.0 (does it really exist?) but to highlight this interesting video on it. Whatever we term it, Web2.0 is a handy hook on which to hand all the new innovations that are happening on the net. The increasing amount of participation that is happening with content (wikipedia is a famous example) is a major opportunity for educators. Anyhow -watch the video and get inspired!

New Art Gallery for Park View CLC

Created using the wonderful Google Page Creator (what, you're not using it already??? It's one of the easiest and quickest ways to publish webpages - and it's free!) our new art gallery is online. Have a browse through the pictures, admire the creative talents of the young people we work with and contact us if you want to know more.

Climate Change wikis

Today we trialled a new session we are offering concerning Climate Change. The pupils from Year 9 St Alban's School were split into groups and assigned overall tasks - how they divided up the tasks and time was up to them.

They created a website (wiki), podcast, logo and researched information on 3 areas: recycling, energy saving and transport.

The results can be seen here.