Richard Taylor, Northumberland ICT and e-learning Adviser:   Following on from last year's theme of Harnessing Technology, this year's conference is focused on making the best use of ICT resources in teaching and learning.                                             

All of us have seen the use of ICT grow and develop in the last twenty years and hardly a day goes by where there is not a new resource available online or a new bit of technology kit available to buy.

This mushrooming of resources and opportunities is not just confined to our home lives and in education, developments in hardware, software and learning resources have similarly continued at the same pace.

This conference takes as its theme ‘Putting the Pieces Together’ and is an opportunity for teachers to join us to see (and experience) the wealth of digital learning resources available to Northumberland schools.

ICT and e-learning continue to develop and this year we have some fantastic developments taking place in County including:

• the upgrading of school internet links

• the provision of high spec wireless internet connections in schools

• the introduction of minibook computers

• the continued expansion of the licensed software available to schools

• the enhancement of NorTLE, the free County virtual learning environment

• the roll out of Realsmart – online assessment for learning, mind mapping and web tools

• the introduction of the County online video library

These are just some of the many exciting developments in ICT and e-learning that will be covered in the seminars during the day. We have curriculum ideas for you to try like Ember or serious games, new resources like Robots to control and hands on activities with the Asus eeePC (minibook) and of course a collection of free resources available on the day.
 

If you want to make a start at putting the pieces together then make sure you book early to avoid disappointment!

There will also be a choice of 24 seminars covering various aspects of ICT across the Curriculum.