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Firstly, congratulations to all involved in designing this online course. I must echo the sentiments of the other participants in saying that the course was well laid out, well pitched and contained good quality resources. I actually needed to spend the full 20 hours online engaging with this material. One of the surprising elements of this course for me was padlet. I thought that this was simply going to be a gimmick. When I first signed up to padlet on Monday and was given "My exquisite padlet" and sent an email congratulating me as if I had just given birth I thought the whole concept was crazy. However, I am so glad that we were forced to use it for the week because now I can really see it's uses. I look back on the wall I have created this week and see how this could be used in so many ways at school, particularly for brainstorming.Another resource that I intend using in September is Kahoot. This will be a great motivational tool for quizes and for assessment. This course also showed me how I am under using Google drive. To date, I have only used it for easy access to my own lesson plans etc...By setting up a class folder EPortfolios become easy to manage. However, the challenge here is to keep it professional. Set up a school email address first. Another challenge is the fact that all pupils may not have internet access at home but it is important not to let excuses get in the way of trying something out. I believe that the important thing is to start slowly and maybe begin with one class within the school. Once other teachers see it working and know that there is support available for them then they will be keen to try it for themselves.I felt that the videos showing IT in action in real classrooms were excellent. However, I need to remind myself that these are examples of best practise and that these teachers have been working on this for a while and have had time to iron out any initial difficulties. Issues such as internet safety and copyright need to be discussed with students on a regular basis. However, I do believe that ICT can greatly enhance learning and that EPortfolios provide pupils with a wonderful opportunity to self and peer assess work, take charge of their own learning and to store examples of their work long term.  

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Firstly, congratulations to all involved in designing this online course. I must echo the sentiments of the other participants in saying that the course was well laid out, well pitched and contained good quality resources. I actually needed to spend the full 20 hours online engaging with this material. One of the surprising elements of this course for me was padlet. I thought that this was simply going to be a gimmick. When I first signed up to padlet on Monday and was given "My exquisite padlet" and sent an email congratulating me as if I had just given birth I thought the whole concept was crazy. However, I am so glad that we were forced to use it for the week because now I can really see it's uses. I look back on the wall I have created this week and see how this could be used in so many ways at school, particularly for brainstorming.Another resource that I intend using in September is Kahoot. This will be a great motivational tool for quizes and for assessment. This course also showed me how I am under using Google drive. To date, I have only used it for easy access to my own lesson plans etc...By setting up a class folder EPortfolios become easy to manage. However, the challenge here is to keep it professional. Set up a school email address first. Another challenge is the fact that all pupils may not have internet access at home but it is important not to let excuses get in the way of trying something out. I believe that the important thing is to start slowly and maybe begin with one class within the school. Once other teachers see it working and know that there is support available for them then they will be keen to try it for themselves.I felt that the videos showing IT in action in real classrooms were excellent. However, I need to remind myself that these are examples of best practise and that these teachers have been working on this for a while and have had time to iron out any initial difficulties. Issues such as internet safety and copyright need to be discussed with students on a regular basis. However, I do believe that ICT can greatly enhance learning and that EPortfolios provide pupils with a wonderful opportunity to self and peer assess work, take charge of their own learning and to store examples of their work long term.  

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I have learnt a lot about internet safety and copyright issues by doing this course and there are many ideas that I myself will be taking on board in September and also alerting my colleagues to. Firstly, we need to review our acceptable usage policy. I also liked the suggestion on the webwise video that you should assume that your pupils have forgotten everything they ever heard about acceptable use and internet safety and revise it all before using IT with them in September. I hadn't been aware of the advantages in allocating a specific laptop/tablet to a child/pair but it certainly makes a lot of sense as it is a great way of keeping tabs on what is happening online. Finally, with regards to internet safety, I intend getting another email account specifically for school use only. Using ones own email address for school use leaves one too exposed and is unnecessary.In terms of copyright, I will certainly be more aware of this issue next school year. Now that I know how easy it is to use the filter tool on Google to find copyright free material there really is no excuse for infringing copyright. This little nugget of information is something that could easily be shown to staff during a Croke Park hour in September.

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I have learnt a lot about internet safety and copyright issues by doing this course and there are many ideas that I myself will be taking on board in September and also alerting my colleagues to. Firstly, we need to review our acceptable usage policy. I also liked the suggestion on the webwise video that you should assume that your pupils have forgotten everything they ever heard about acceptable use and internet safety and revise it all before using IT with them in September. I hadn't been aware of the advantages in allocating a specific laptop/tablet to a child/pair but it certainly makes a lot of sense as it is a great way of keeping tabs on what is happening online. Finally, with regards to internet safety, I intend getting another email account specifically for school use only. Using ones own email address for school use leaves one too exposed and is unnecessary.In terms of copyright, I will certainly be more aware of this issue next school year. Now that I know how easy it is to use the filter tool on Google to find copyright free material there really is no excuse for infringing copyright. This little nugget of information is something that could easily be shown to staff during a Croke Park hour in September.

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Michelle, your school seems to have every angle covered with regards to internet safety. Other schools such as my own could certainly learn a lot from yours. I especially like the idea of the children completing a series of lessons on internet safety at the start of the school year. It is essential that they are aware of the dangers that they might encounter online.I think that many young children also see the internet as being completely truthful and factual and that anything they read on the internet must be true. If the class teacher could show the pupils some examples of contradicting information on the internet I think that this might also be a valuable lesson for children in analytical thinking. They should not believe everything they read even if it has been put up online. 

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Michelle, your school seems to have every angle covered with regards to internet safety. Other schools such as my own could certainly learn a lot from yours. I especially like the idea of the children completing a series of lessons on internet safety at the start of the school year. It is essential that they are aware of the dangers that they might encounter online.I think that many young children also see the internet as being completely truthful and factual and that anything they read on the internet must be true. If the class teacher could show the pupils some examples of contradicting information on the internet I think that this might also be a valuable lesson for children in analytical thinking. They should not believe everything they read even if it has been put up online. 

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It's difficult to choose but the one I would like to recommend today is UpToTen.com. This bilingual (French and English) website is designed to teacher children up to ten years basic computer skills using educational games. I display the next tasks on the IWB before each lesson and then we head to the computer room where the pupils work in twos. They really enjoy the programme. Register your school for free full access to the site. Best suited to Juniors, Seniors and possibly First Classes

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http://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/Good‐ Practice/Videos/Primary/#126600753

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http://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/Good‐ Practice/Videos/Primary/#25720874

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Next school year in my new role as EAL teacher I hope to work with the pupils on projects on their home countries. This will be group projects with all pupils from the same country working together. IT will be invaluable here as these pupils are not all even in the same base classroom as each other. Here is how I intend to use the three functions of EPortfolios in this project.

Firstly, for storage I intend using google drive. I will set up a folder for each country and give the pupils of that nationality access to that folder. Any maps, pictures, facts, flags etc...that they have can be stored there and can then be sorted through by all the pupils involved before moving on to the next phase of the project.

Secondly, for workspace I intend using google docs. Once again, pupils of the same nationality will work together to create and edit the doc. I would be able to email feedback and suggestions to the students and have easy access to the doc at all times during this phase.

Thirdly, for showcase we have a school website. I would hope to create a padlet for each country containing all the most interesting facts and include a link in our website to it. I feel that parents would be very interested in seeing the full final product so our website would also inform them that the full finished projects were on display on the EAL noticeboard.

Assessment of this activity would take place before the projects were printed when group would have access to the docs created by the other groups and would be able to provide feedback to the other groups.

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Hi Michelle,I think your idea of a book club is the ideal one to make use of IT. Using padlet, Edmondo and Google docs really makes full use of all resources available. When I was last in the senior end of the school I did book reviews in copies. How the pupils hated doing redrafts of the whole review because of a few little mistakes. The reason for the full redraft was for the purposes of showcasing the final product. Now with the technology we have available to us mistakes can be so easily corrected.Another advantage of technology is that the pupils could build up a folder each of their book reviews on google docs. The reviews for any given book could also be stored in a folder devoted to that book and a star rating could be given to each book based on the reviews.

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Hi Michelle,I think your idea of a book club is the ideal one to make use of IT. Using padlet, Edmondo and Google docs really makes full use of all resources available. When I was last in the senior end of the school I did book reviews in copies. How the pupils hated doing redrafts of the whole review because of a few little mistakes. The reason for the full redraft was for the purposes of showcasing the final product. Now with the technology we have available to us mistakes can be so easily corrected.Another advantage of technology is that the pupils could build up a folder each of their book reviews on google docs. The reviews for any given book could also be stored in a folder devoted to that book and a star rating could be given to each book based on the reviews.

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The key learning points for me so far have been firstly my underuse of google docs. I have been using google drive a little myself to store lessons created at home for easy access at school. However, I now intend to extend my use of google drive and create a class folder so as to involve the pupils in the creation of EPortfolios.
Another thing this course has open my eyes to is my current practise with regards to using images from the internet. Now that I know how to use the search tool filter to find copyright free images that is something  will incorporate into my practise.

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Assessment feedback can be given by the teacher any time. It is so easy to access without the need to bring copies home.

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Assessment feedback can be given by the teacher any time. It is so easy to access without the need to bring copies home.

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EPortfolios are an excellent tool for pupils with special needs. They help to level the playing field as there are now many tools and accessories available to enable SEN students to access computers, tablets etc... even if they have physical difficulties in doing so. It also gives those pupils the opportunity to develop fine motor skills and to become more independant.

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Hi Michelle,

thanks for sharing that idea with us.I have never used google docs with a class before but I am moving to EAL in September and can see how your idea could easily be used with them. Again, in my case parents would be very supportive and engaged in this and pupils would see it as a fun activity. It could be used for phonics and grammar as you have described with my EAL students and I could also use it with activities based on the EAL themes. For example, all the students could add pictures and captions to a google doc entitled "Our Families".

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Not having used Google docs in a class setting before I found this question difficult to answer. Many of the other contributors to the forum gave very good examples but most worked best with older classes. With younger students you are depending on parental involvement but with parents on board I believe that online collaboration tools such as Google docs could be used very successfully.  One literacy project that I could use google docs for in September would be a collaborative project on "My Home Country" with my EAL students. Many of the students are from the same counties and so we could have a section on Poland, Latvia, Nigeria etc ....and the children could all add their facts, maps, pictures etc... to the project. With parental involvement by parents of the younger students it could be a very extensive piece of work. Maybe we could print out the finished doc to display it in the school. In terms of class level, all the EAL students would be involved and in terms of curricular areas many would be covered including Literacy, geography, history, SPHE etc....How the project is assessed is difficult but I feel that if the project interests both the students and their parents and that is reflected in the quality of work produced then self assessment by the students themselves is probably best. 

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Not having used Google docs in a class setting before I found this question difficult to answer. Many of the other contributors to the forum gave very good examples but most worked best with older classes. With younger students you are depending on parental involvement but with parents on board I believe that online collaboration tools such as Google docs could be used very successfully.  One literacy project that I could use google docs for in September would be a collaborative project on "My Home Country" with my EAL students. Many of the students are from the same counties and so we could have a section on Poland, Latvia, Nigeria etc ....and the children could all add their facts, maps, pictures etc... to the project. With parental involvement by parents of the younger students it could be a very extensive piece of work. Maybe we could print out the finished doc to display it in the school. In terms of class level, all the EAL students would be involved and in terms of curricular areas many would be covered including Literacy, geography, history, SPHE etc....How the project is assessed is difficult but I feel that if the project interests both the students and their parents and that is reflected in the quality of work produced then self assessment by the students themselves is probably best. 

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As I am moving out of Senior Infants and into EAL in September I was very keen to get ideas for using ICT to enhance learning. I also feel that ICT can be a great assessment tool and one that is fun for pupils to use. Kahoot seems like a great tool to use with EAL students as it seems very straightforward to make and even find quizes. I think that I could use Kahoots to make quizes to assess learning in all the EAL themes. Examples of such quizes would be - people who help us, animals and their young, parts of the body etc...Padlet would also be a good tool to use with EAL students as it is something that they could assess at home. From past experience I know that many parents of our EAL students are very motivated to help their children to learn English and also to improve their own standard of English too. Being able to access padlet at home and discuss what the children have being learning at school would appeal very strongly to these parents.

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As I am moving out of Senior Infants and into EAL in September I was very keen to get ideas for using ICT to enhance learning. I also feel that ICT can be a great assessment tool and one that is fun for pupils to use. Kahoot seems like a great tool to use with EAL students as it seems very straightforward to make and even find quizes. I think that I could use Kahoots to make quizes to assess learning in all the EAL themes. Examples of such quizes would be - people who help us, animals and their young, parts of the body etc...Padlet would also be a good tool to use with EAL students as it is something that they could assess at home. From past experience I know that many parents of our EAL students are very motivated to help their children to learn English and also to improve their own standard of English too. Being able to access padlet at home and discuss what the children have being learning at school would appeal very strongly to these parents.

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Hi AnnMarie,you have a lot of great ideas there, particularly ones that can be easily used with Senior classes. I love your idea about book reviews, for instance.From my experience with Senior Infants over the past five years I feel that younger pupils are just as attracted to ICT and are very capable of using it. In fact they love it and quizes to examine what they have learnt are considered to be great fun. This year, for example we changed our Irish scheme to Bua Na Cainte. I don't mean to plug any one scheme here and I am sure that all the new schemes are very good. However, I just want to mention that the ICT games used with each lesson are a great way of assessing the pupils learning in a fun interactive manner. Gaeilge has never been more popular in my room! Next school year I hope to have the confidence to devise my own ICT games to assess learning.

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Hi AnnMarie,you have a lot of great ideas there, particularly ones that can be easily used with Senior classes. I love your idea about book reviews, for instance.From my experience with Senior Infants over the past five years I feel that younger pupils are just as attracted to ICT and are very capable of using it. In fact they love it and quizes to examine what they have learnt are considered to be great fun. This year, for example we changed our Irish scheme to Bua Na Cainte. I don't mean to plug any one scheme here and I am sure that all the new schemes are very good. However, I just want to mention that the ICT games used with each lesson are a great way of assessing the pupils learning in a fun interactive manner. Gaeilge has never been more popular in my room! Next school year I hope to have the confidence to devise my own ICT games to assess learning.

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https://vimeo.com/161896932
www.sess.ie/resources/factors‐consider

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Yes, all students including those with special needs enjoy computers but many students with special needs would also benefit from the motor skills gained from ePortfolios

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A portfolio is a collection of a persons work build up over time to show progression. Simularly, an eportfolio is a collection of work using ICT

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A portfolio is a collection of a persons work build up over time to show progression. Simularly, an eportfolio is a collection of work using ICT

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http://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/Good‐ Practice/Videos/#156841860
https://vimeo.com/161896647

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ICT in my classroomI use Aladdin in school to record both standardised test results and class test results too. This is very convenient for all class teachers as the results can be accessed by everyone and the results are kept for as long as the pupil is in the school.Games in our Bua Na Cainte scheme are also a great form of assessment as well as a fun activity.

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ICT in my classroomI use Aladdin in school to record both standardised test results and class test results too. This is very convenient for all class teachers as the results can be accessed by everyone and the results are kept for as long as the pupil is in the school.Games in our Bua Na Cainte scheme are also a great form of assessment as well as a fun activity.

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Kahoot seems like a great tool for assessment. I will be teaching EAL in September and could use Kahoot to create quizes for the EAL themes. For example, a quiz on people who help us or on animals and their young.

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Kahoot seems like a great tool for assessment. I will be teaching EAL in September and could use Kahoot to create quizes for the EAL themes. For example, a quiz on people who help us or on animals and their young.