Thursday 5 February 2015

ICT At Chatsworth - Ann Sylph

Miss Gale (Yr5 Teacher and ICT Coordinator) and I spent the day at BETT, a massive trade show at EXCEL where suppliers have the opportunity to display a wide range of products for schools. We went along with the aim of finding out more about what is available and to try to identify products to enhance teaching and learning at Chatsworth. Most of the stalls were offering ICT products to help with particular subjects, some companies were offering very niche products only and others a very wide range. Chatsworth has a very sensible approach and only buys ICT products if staff strongly feel they will make a difference rather than using ICT for the sake of it, after all we all need a break from our `gadgetry’ particularly since we are also keen to encourage healthy, active lifestyles!
We did manage to speak to quite a few suppliers and identified some products that could be of use to Chatsworth, some were no/low tech products which seemed effective such as a clock designed to help teach children to read the time. My favourite was an app designed for outdoor learning, I particularly liked the key to help identifying trees.
It was an interesting day and it was certainly useful for both of us, I would like to go next year and maybe also attend some of the talks by leaders in education.

Ann Sylph, ICT Governor

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