ICTeachers  - Interesting Stuff for Teachers

ICTeachers Magazine - January 2002 - Probably the best educational newsletter in the world!
Circulation 8000+  including Educational Organisations World-wide!

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Who Are ICTeachers?

Some would say that we are masters of time management and manage to run a business and schools.  Others would just say we are breaking the mould and introducing the values we believe in to the commercial sector whilst learning from the private sector the importance of customer service, marketing and financial management!

Message from the Editor

As I crawl to my computer most evenings I have the pleasure to be in contact with a colleague from New York, USA.  Have been for a while now, even pre-Sept 11th.  The trouble is she keeps sending me things via my school email account.  The other lunchtime I was wading through various attachments she'd sent me from her children to mine when I opened one particular offering.  Low and behold I suddenly entered the amazing world of full frontal BODY ART!  

I have to say I was impressed with what you can actually do with various sections of the body from birds nests to dogs with wet noses, but unfortunately, just at that moment my next door colleague walked in.  Could I manage to get rid of it?  Could I heck.  As much as I clicked on my mouse MORE pictures appeared! 

ARRGH!  

She was quite forgiving and was happy to accept my flimsy explanation.  Needless to say it was immediately wiped off the system!  : )

My American counterpart also takes great delight in telling me how wonderful her life is over there as a teacher and how terribly stomped on teachers in the UK are!  I wonder how this compares with teachers' lots in other parts of the world.  She puts it down to the weakness of our Professional Associations compared with theirs.

She says that:

1.  They get paid a bonus for life for any In-service training they do.

2.  They get lots of extra days off in the year to remember dead people who have done suspect things including 12 weeks holidays in the summer.

3.  They have all left the building by 3.20pm.

4.  They all get paid bucket loads of money because of where they work.

6.  If they work ONE MINUTE extra in the evening then they get half the next day off!

5.  They have drinks machines in their corridors and use the money to finance teacher trips to the Casinos in Canada!

Well, despite my skepticism regarding the last point she assures me the rest is true!  Well, is it?  Maybe your country has a better deal?

I hear there is a teacher shortage in New York. 

The Editor
md@icteachers.co.uk

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What's New on the Website

Resources Vault : www.icteachers.co.uk/resources/

Well, for some of us report writing time is looming!  This handy set of files from Doncaster LEA are useful.  Comments split into Levels for each subject.  Can be used for reports or for target setting, moderation and assessment use! 

http://www.icteachers.co.uk/resources/resources_assessment.htm

Under our reviewed teacher links are all the LEA websites.  An incredible resource.  

Cumbria and Lancashire LEA

 http://cleo.ucsm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/frameset?url=/teachers/professional/&area=professional  

which has a complete set of spreadsheets for analyzing SATS and Optional SATS.  Incredible.  Plus MUCH, MUCH more!! A manager's drool fest!

If you have anything on your hard disk to share with colleagues then send it to vaultman@icteachers.co.uk ,

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Online Dating: Doing It Safely!

Of course there is no practical way to make meeting a stranger absolutely safe, but here are some effective ways to help reduce the risk.

Before the first date!

1. Get an anonymous e-mail account.

2. Take time

3. Get a phone number!

4. Verify the phone number!  

5. Call at unanticipated times!  

6.  Ask to have a family photo!   

7.  Get a physical address and mail a card.  

8. Ask about previous relationships.  

For the first date!

1. Clarify everyone's expectations.   

2. Always use common sense.   

3. Double date if possible.   

4. ALWAYS conduct early dates in very public places.  

5. AVOID relying on your date for transportation.

6. Think Ahead.

7. Never leave your food or beverages unattended.

8. Let someone know your plans.

Now... if you have done your homework, and prepared correctly, both you and your date can relax and have a good time....  and the folks who love you can relax too!

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Bob the Builder's Web Building Tips - Watch your text!

Content is king

Some sites aim to be "arty" and rely heavily on graphics for their impact, but there are very few of these. Most sites rely on their content to attract visitors and keep them coming back. The vehicle that carries the information on your site is the text, so you need to pay particular attention to this aspect of your site.

The first thing you need to remember is that the text carries the meaning and the impact of the information on your site, so it needs to be clear, simple and direct. Fancy fonts can make it difficult for visitors to follow the text and dark or patterned backgrounds can also play havoc with the eyesight when trying to decipher the text above it. So keep backgrounds unobtrusive and the text clear and in a contrasting colour.

There are only four fonts that are universally accessible to all browsers on the web - 

• Arial;

• Times New Roman;

• Comic Sans;

• Verdana.

Elephant bold and that fancy curly-wurly script may look great on your browser, but if the visitor hasn't got those fonts installed, then their browser will display the text in the machine's default font - usually Times New Roman. As different fonts have different individual letter widths, this can radically alter the layout of some pages. It's worth remembering, too, that some people have the default font on their machine set to their favourite font, which means all text will, at times, display in that font! The best way to avoid too much radical change to the layout of your pages in this instance, is to use tables to lay out the pages and hold the text. I tend to use tables on every page, even if no complicated layout is needed, as it tightens up the whole feel and look of the page.

Colours, emphasis and italics can all be used as a means of making the text clearer and drawing attention to the important information on your pages


Titles and headlines

I find that when text gets larger than about 12 point - or size 3 in html terms - the words and letters begin to look ragged around the edges. For this reason I use gif files, created in Paint Shop Pro using the Text tool, to create the headlines and titles on my pages. Apart from giving a cleaner, sharper feel to the titles, you can also play around with the text, adding fills and drop shadows to create interesting effects. This helps to give your pages character, individuality and a design edge which helps to bring them at least some way towards those "arty" sites we mentioned at the beginning.

The main titles in the red bar on the left of the new-look ICTeachers site were done in this way - as were those in ICWebs, ICAdverts and ICWebmail. The drawback, of course, is that gif files are more hungry for memory than text, so use this technique sparingly.


Hyperlinks

One of my pet hates is the foul colours that hyperlinks are set to as default. The blue is attractive on an unvisited hyperlink, but as soon as it is clicked on, it turns a vile purple colour which looks appalling against most backgrounds. Luckily these colours can be changed! It's easy to do this in any web design package, such as Dreamweaver or Front Page and just as easy in raw html:

<body bgcolor="#CC0000" text="#000066" link="#3333FF" vlink="#3333FF" alink="#3333FF">

The above is an adapted section of html from the initial <body> tag on the new-look ICTeachers website. It controls all the hyperlink colours for the page and sets the colours to the same for all new, visited and active links. In this case it sets them all to blue. It could equally well have been written:

<body bgcolor="#CC0000" text="#000066" link="blue" vlink="blue" alink="blue">

This would have worked in most browsers - the advantage of using the hexadecimal numbers for the colours is that they are universally recognised by all browsers.

So there you have it. Be clear about what you want the text on your site to do and what its limitations are. Plan these into your pages for a great look and feel to your site.

Bob Hopcraft

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School Websites - OFSTED Coming?

Take a look at SOME of the sites we have recently built:

http://www.bispham.org.uk 
http://outerquest.co.uk/barmby 
http://www.exeter-the-topsham.devon.sch.uk 
http://www.woolgrove.org.uk
http://www.manchesterroad.org.uk/
http://www.highcliffe.leics.sch.uk 

Sites include primary, infant, junior, secondary, community and special schools.

Interested? Then please contact webmasters@icteachers.co.uk or telephone Bob on 01462 630768.
It will help if you give us a contact telephone number in the e-mail so that we can discuss your initial requirements.

"Bob gives wonderful follow up service and uploads the stuff I send him without fail. He gives me tips and advice and I really feel that I am an honoured customer. Nothing is too much trouble and he never makes me feel dumb or ICT illiterate." Headteacher

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Website and Intranet Safety

First I want to look at the practical side of setting up a website and then say something about safety and security for intranets by way of a discussion starter.  I hope you will express your views in the forum so that we can help each other.

Websites

In my experience schools want websites for three main reasons:

1.         To celebrate their successes globally and give a guide as to their standards in order to attract new children.

2.         As a means of disseminating information to various interested groups through online newsletters, prospectus, latest homework etc.

3.         Increasingly, though schools want something a bit different that reflects their most recent developments.  For example schools who are working to improve boys' writing might use the website as a window to advertise this and to display the best in boys' writing.  Others construct the site as an interactive base so that children can actually USE the site.  For instance java games pages or online quizzes.

Issues to Consider

Process:  Before you start though you need to be very clear about what it is you want your website to portray and achieve.  This will effect the people you want to attract to your website and the places you wish to send them on your website.  Take a look at http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/ict/makingwebpages/contents.htm for those who need some guidance.

Domain Name - www.yourschool.  - Your own country will probably have several different companies where you can register your domain name.  Don’t' be fooled into paying large sums of money for it though, it is not that expensive.

Cost: This will depend on whether you want to build the site yourself or have one built for you.  Prices vary incredibly but you need to be sure that the people building the site actually have a clear understanding as to what it is YOUR school wants.   www.icteachers.co.uk  

Personnel:  Some schools have relied on parents with ICT skills, initially this works well but then a tension often arises between the ICT expert's views and the needs as perceived by the school.  Also, does whoever builds it have to maintain it?  What about if there are career changes.  Often it is best to let others handle those things and not take it on yourself.  www.icteacher.co.uk

Safety - You will need to have a very clear Internet safety policy that includes a section dealing with the information contained in websites.  Check out http://safety.ngfl.org.uk for sound advice on safety in web building.  Kent LEA has an excellent template for an Internet Safety Policy. http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/policy.html

Various authorities in the UK seem to be handling the issues of safety in different ways.  There are no current universal standards of safety.   Certainly this should be one of the discussions educationalists in Europe should be having.

Intranets

As more and more schools across Europe have connected with the Internet the need to understand the security implications for schools has increased.  There needs to be a dialogue in Europe as to what standard we expect from each others schools as students use school intranets to publish and review inappropriate material and to enter machines via their school intranet.

Bare Minimum.  

1. Firewall 

2. Regularly Updated Anti-Virus Software 

3. Regular Backups

4. Security Policy

5. Filtering Software - do you need it?

Firewalls

A firewall acts like the secretary at school.  They intercept everything that tries to come in or go out of a school and checks it with the schools policy to see if it is allowed.  If the school policy says that it can come in then it is allowed if the policy says that it cannot come in then it is blocked and gets no further!

The firewall on an intranet only allows contact with the Internet if you have specifically allowed that program such as an Internet browser or a chat program to access the Internet otherwise it will block it.  On the other side of the firewall nobody can "see" that you are connected to the Internet as the firewall hides your machines identity online.  This means that hackers who look out for vulnerable machines will not "see" you and you will be safe.  Check out http://www.howstuffworks.com/firewall.htm; for a more detailed explanation http://www.hideaway.net/texts/fwfaq.html If you wish to get your own free firewall for your home computer use then go to www.zonelabs.com.   See what it can do and what it cannot do.

Virus Checkers

You MUST have an anti-virus program that is regularly updated.  Anti-Virus programs are different from Firewalls as they scan the data once it has passed into the computer through the firewall.  It checks to see whether the vulnerable files contain any viruses or other malicious code.  They not only scan files coming in via the Internet but they also scan files coming in through the other drives attached to the machine such as the floppy drive or CD drive.  You do NOT want to take the risk.  It only takes one bite to make you wish you had taken the advice.  Take a look at http://www.cyberangels.org/net-ed/index.html where you can sign up to take online classes in this and many other areas.

Regular Backups

Ask yourself the question.  Should the worst happen and I lose all my files, the student's files etc how long will it take me to redo all the work?  This should spur you on to ensure you backup your files at least once a week depending on the size of your system.  You can do it several ways but you should not neglect it.  It is part of the essential make up of your intranet safety policy.

Security Policy

None of these protections will serve any purpose unless you have a sound Security Policy. 

This would include being clear about:

1. What programs will be allowed to connect to the Internet and which programs will not. 

2. How often you will update your anti-virus software and what settings you will use.

3. How often you will back up your whole system. 

4. What you will allow students and teachers to load/download and what you will not. 

You must be clear and do NOT compromise!  Your systems security will be as strong as you are in keeping the policy in place.

Never tell anyone what anti-virus program or firewall you use if you can help it.  No program is 100% safe so don't help the hacker by telling them what holes to look for!

Filtering Software - Do you need it?

The need for filtering software in schools is a question for debate.  I would query any school that allows children to surf the net unsupervised.  Also, for older children/teens, is not part of our task as teachers to train them in ways to deal with these issues or are we saying that it is OK to allow other people to decide what they can and cannot see.  Perhaps this is something you might wish to pursue via the forum.  There are of course ISP's who provide filtering services and also products available that will do this via the server.  But to rely too much on software and machinery to make decisions that we as teachers should make is never a good thing, is it?

There is so much more I could say but time and space does not permit.  I hope I have begun you thinking about these issues and am more than happy to discuss these in the forums.

Tim McShane
European Regional Director
Cyberangels
timmcshane@cyberangels.org
www.cyberangels.org

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Cutting Through the Hype of ADSL

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) has been largely over-hyped by BT as the future of data communications, and whilst the promise of a permanent Internet connection with a speed of at least 2 Megabits per second (16 times faster than ISDN) is likely to excite every ICT coordinator in the country, the reality is less optimistic.  Being asymmetric means that ADSL achieves a higher speed from the exchange to the user (downstream) and a slower speed from the user to the exchange (upstream).  Further to this, ADSL does not really allow the transmission of high quality video files to a network of users – the amount of download speed available is divided each time another computer goes online.  The same is true of faster, and more expensive, cable connections, which many areas are looking at under the guidance of the Regional Broadband Grids.

The Grids’ mission is to deliver the government’s objective of a 2 Megabit (Mb) each-way link to secondary schools.  The problem with such a network is its expense and the fact that it will probably be redundant long before the last school has received its connection.  Even 2Mb will not be able satisfactorily to stream the video-rich resources, which companies like Espresso are currently pioneering.  When the BBC finally completes it massive Digital Curriculum production, there will still remain the problem of how to deliver vast educational video archives to school networks.

Next month we will investigate whether satellite technology can provide the solution to theses challenges.

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If you have research or articles you think would interest fellow educationalists then forward them to me info@icteachers.co.uk

This Newsletter is produced by ICTeachers Ltd
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