Using Think'com for European Collaboration

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Using Think.com for European Collaboration

• Gareth Morgan
• ICT Teacher Adviser
• Malpas CIW Primary School, Newport, Wales Nya
  Varvets Skola

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Where is Wales?
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Gone !!
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Where is the school?
Since 1997 Wales has distanced itself
educationally from England
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Background Information - Newport

• A city since 2002
• 8 Secondary schools (11 to 16 year olds)
• 55 Primary phase schools (4 to 11 year olds)
• 1 Special school, 1 Pupil referral unit
• 24,000 pupils and 1400 teachers
• High population density and geographically
  compact (139,000 in 8 Miles x 12 Miles)

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Background to Malpas CIW Primary School

• 220 children
• A junior school (children aged 7 to 11)
• 8 classes
• 4 teaching units each containing 2 classrooms
• A mixed catchment area

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Classroom Structure
Year group 4
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ICT Provision in the School

• ICT has a strong presence in the school
• A managed network operated by the LEA
• Broadband access
• All classrooms have computers
• 40 networked computers around the school
• Easy access to computers for children
• 10 tablet PCs and wireless projectors

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Beliefs About ICT (LEA)

• Raising standards of pupils achievement
• Improving teaching and learning in all curriculum
  areas
• Making life easier for teachers
• And more engaging for learners
• Enabling collaboration

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Beliefs About ICT (Malpas CIW Primary School)

• Raising standard of pupils achievement
• Improving quality of teaching and learning
• ICT utilized in all curriculum areas
• ICT as a resource for all students
• ICT as a resource for all teachers
• Knowing when and when not to use ICT

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Think.com (history)

• In 1998 the government set a goal for
• all students to have an email account by 2002

• Oracles CEO, Larry Ellison begins work
• with Tony Blair and Oracle web developers
• to build Think.com

England Wales USA Scotland
Northern Ireland Chile, NZ
Thailand China
1998 1999 2000 2001
2002 2003
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Think.com The Big Picture

• Web-based
• Protected
• Collaborative
• FREE with no advertising!!

students
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What is Think.com?
Think.com is
Free web pages and email accounts for everyone in
your school
My Website Email People
Groups (collaboration)
There are 4 main areas
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Why Did We Use Think.com?

• Malpas CIW Primary School has been involved with
  Comenius projects for 10 years
• Using snail mail communication between schools
  can be slow
• Interactions can now be instantaneous
• Now work with lots of different media
• Very easy to use
• Because it is web based, children have access
  from home

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What does it look like?
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Create Your Own Webpages
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Collaborate in a Group

• 8 children in a group
• 4 from Wales
• 4 from Sweden
• Tasks given by teacher

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Communicate Using E-mail
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Activities

• Still early days. Only just set up with the
  groups
• Children encouraged to e-mail children in their
  group
• Joint projects set up in group areas eg. Water,
  weather, day in the life of..
• The travels of Dewi the Dragon and Kalle

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Any questions?