Laptops

Google Drive

Google Drive is the king of the clouds when it comes to quick and easy access to files and folders from any device and any location. If you use Gmail and not Google Drive, you’ve got to take the leap! With easy file sharing and unlimited storage space for schools, Drive is a superb way for schools to start working towards a server-free future in the clouds. A quick note – Google Drive is YOUR personal space. Google has introduced Teams to manage shared and collaborative spaces. For collaboration and file sharing with students use Google Classroom, not Drive, as Classroom makes the whole experience better and safer.

Computing: Warm Up

Computing on the curriculum has now been around for quite a while, yet we know it still causes schools, primary and secondary schools all over the UK, a real point of pain and stress. We are constantly looking for ways to alleviate the stress and help teachers who ‘didn’t sign up to this’ when they did their PGCE. Well, there are a tonne of brilliant resources out there, tonnes! These include everything from the Computing Textbook to the great work CAS (Computing at School) and Khan Academy do. A little curriculum mapping aside, fabulous resources from code.org in the USA and organisations like Tynker are brilliant too.

What are you going to learn about?

You’ll learn about how to ensure you are compliant in your practices and how these fit into the wider school activities around meeting the new regulations. This Learning Trunk introduces key terms and lays out obligations.

Who is hosting this Learning Trunk?

Sonny is a Founder of Spongy Elephant and also a fully qualified teacher. He is a Computer Scientist by trade and has over 20 years experience in education and is an edtech expert. His training company New Ways to Learn has worked with well over 20000 teachers and school staff over the last 6 years.

How long do I need?

Around 25 minutes.

Anything else I need to know?

We have set this Learning Trunk so that you progress through each video in order. This is important as the content is connected.

Impero

Impero is that tool schools hear about which allows teachers to control student devices, see and share student screens, block the internet adhoc and direct students to websites and applications in seconds. That is all very well, but where it is equally as powerful, is in giving teachers really useful classroom tools. These tools mean that teachers can improve collaboration, poll students on the fly, broadcast from one student’s screen to all the other students in the class as part of peer assessment, and even reward students for using keywords that they’ve learnt during a topic or theme. Easy to master and great for removing distractions, Impero is a classroom must-have, and isn’t just one for the network guys!

What are you going to learn about?

In this FREE Learning Trunk, you’ll learn how Impero works and develop a good understanding of how the dashboard works in both basic and advanced modes.

Who is hosting this Learning Trunk?

This is a CURATED Learning Trunk built for you from content sourced online. We have selected these particular videos after reviewing several available online.

How long do I need?

Less than 20 minutes.

Anything else I need to know?

We have set this Learning Trunk so that you progress through each video in any order.

Spiral

Spiral is an excellent collaboration tool. The stand out function for us is CLIP. Clip lets you take a video from YouTube and add questions to it before sharing it with students. As students watch the video on the teacher’s device/screen, questions pop up on the students’ devices. Responses can be reviewed across the class and even expanded on. Genius!

What are you going to learn about?

In this FREE Learning Trunk, you’ll learn how Spiral works and develop a good understanding of how the dashboard works for quick fire quizzes and using YouTube and Vimeo clips.

Who is hosting this Learning Trunk?

This is a CURATED Learning Trunk built for you from content sourced online. We have selected these particular videos after reviewing several available online.

How long do I need?

Around 50 minutes.

Anything else I need to know?

We have set this Learning Trunk so that you progress through each video in any order.

Nearpod

Nearpod is without a doubt one of the best tools for teacher and students. It works on any device is the one tool that should be a staple in every teachers Edtech Toolkit. NearPod connects teachers with every device in the classroom using a simple PIN. By connecting, a teacher can now control student devices and guide them through a series of slides and activities including watching videos, browsing images, polling, quizzing and our favourite, drawing activities. We’ve used NearPod with Early Years, all the way through to FE. It is so powerful and so intuitive to create NearPods and use them with students. You’ll love NearPod, so do give it a try.

What are you going to learn about?

In this FREE Learning Trunk, you’ll learn how NearPod works and how to make the best use of it for lessons. You’ll learn how to build slides and use activities to bring boring a PowerPoint to life, use NearPod with any device and understand how Live and Student-Paced lessons work.

Who is hosting this Learning Trunk?

This is a CURATED Learning Trunk built for you from content sourced online. We have selected these particular videos after reviewing several available online.

How long do I need?

Less than 20 minutes.

Anything else I need to know?

We have set this Learning Trunk so that you progress through each video in any order.

EdPuzzle

EDpuzzle is a favourite of ours. It is the simplicity that makes this one stand out from the rest. Using video in class, particularly when it is directly on sites like YouTube can be risky and also full of distractions. Also, how do you know how much of what a student is watching is going in? We can all sometime glaze over when watching videos! EDpuzzle fixes all that and is one for the Teacher Toolkit for sure.

What are you going to learn about?

In this FREE Learning Trunk, you’ll learn how EdPuzzle works and how to make the best use of it for lessons. You’ll learn how to trim videos sourced online and also how to create questions throughout the video.

Who is hosting this Learning Trunk?

This is a CURATED Learning Trunk built for you from content sourced online. We have selected these particular videos after reviewing several available online.

How long do I need?

Less than 10 minutes.

Anything else I need to know?

We have set this Learning Trunk so that you progress through each video in any order.