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If you are a real computer geek you would have put this date in your diary. It was announced on the 27th January. Many fans of Apple and computer geeks were keen to hear about this product. The IPAD is basically a really big IPOD Touch. Below the specifications of the product are listed;
If you click the link here it will take you to the BBC Tech homepage. Where there is a lot more information about the IPAD!
The IPAD will cost from $499 (upwards). So will you buy one? Why not tell us it would be great to hear from you!
The ICT team have very cleverly built their own version of a Smart Table, and it is being trialled in the Library at Holmesdale. Every couple of days the table has been showing a different programme for you to try out. We have already looked at Google Earth as you can see from this photo, and a 3D image maker. Come and have a look at it at breaktimes and lunchtimes to find out what we are showing off next!
We’re sorry to have to stop access to YouTube and other media and music sites at both Holmesdale and Malling.
YouTube is a great educational resource but your teachers are concerned that it is not being used properly in lesson times. For the past year we have opened up media services like YouTube, Iplayer and others because we believed that you could make good use of them in lessons to help with your learning. Many teachers have complained that students are using YouTube or playing with music sites when they should have been working. The technicians have also been monitoring the use of the networks and believe that YouTube is slowing down computer resources for everyone. They also believe that YouTube may be responsible for using up laptop batteries.
Mr Hollingsbee, Federation Director of Teaching and Learning, took the decision to close down YouTube today. “It was a very hard decision,” he explained. “Lots of students benefit from YouTube in order to find out things, watch tutorials and use video in their own work. Unfortunately, a lot of students waste their time on YouTube in lessons when they should be learning. I’m currently doing assemblies in both schools and have stressed that students have rights to use internet resources but they have responsibilities to use them sensibly. YouTube isn’t being used sensibly.”
It is unlikely YouTube will be allowed in school for the rest of the academic year. Teachers will continue to have access to YouTube and will be able to show videos to classes. Video sites that stream educational videos, like TeacherTube, will be available to students. HTC Radio, Unit Radio and school podcasts will still be available to listen to as usual.
Wordle is another great free resource that can be used in the Classroom, It randomley generates word based images that can ebe used for everything from Posters to Blog Posts. You can paste a block of text or simply paste in a URL and let it grab the best words from the site itself… Why not watch this video then give it a try yourself, after all it is free…
==> Click here to watch the video <==
The ICT club will be demonstrating stuff which we will be doing in the club. The main attraction will be our twitter update. If you would like to help out pleas come and find me!
Look forwrd to see some of you there! 
To help understand where to save your files, your laptops are divided into three parts as shown below…
Accessing & Saving your Documents in School…
To access your documents when you are logged into your School Profile you can click on “My Documents”. This Folder is backed up to the school network so that you don’t lose any of your work. This area may also be called your Z: Drive or Home Area by your Teachers and Technicians.
Saving your Homework…
You may want to continue working on a document from home. To do this simply save a copy of the document that you would like to work on in your “Data Drive”. The Data Drive can be accessed at any time by clicking “My Computer” in both your School and Home Profile. When you get home you can carry on working on it and save it back in this Data Drive for the next time that you are in school.
Other ways of accessing your Documents from Home…
Email: You can email small files to yourself via the email feature of the VLE, using the attach files button. The maximum email attachment size is 5mb, and you can only email people that are in the schools address book. You Cannot Email to External Email Addresses such as hotmail etc.
My Files: You can access your school documents remotely using the “My Files” link when logged into the VLE. This will give you a list of all the document in your Z: Drive. You will need to click on one document and download it before you can edit it. To upload a completed document use the “Upload” button which looks like a Yellow folder with a green arrow through it. (Note: Unfortunately at this time only Holmesdale Students can use the ”My Files” feature within the VLE, but we are working on a solution for The Malling School)
Well as you might of realized there is a “ICT Club” launching at Holmesdale. Well you have heard right. The club will be aimed at year 7 and year 8. At the club you will do loads of fun activities and it worth coming along.
If you are interested go along to the Library and fill in your name which is on the Library desk. I will look forward to seeing you there!
Also join us on twitter
Luke Chapman
You may see the MHFInteractive icon around the school on items that students can interacted with freely, the first example is in each of the two school’s library’s. There are large touch screens with dynamic interactions such as interactive presentations, newsletters and 360 degree views. If anyone would like to contribute to these interactions then feel free to let us know.
As part of this attempt to increase student interaction we have been secretly working on our own Interactive Table over the holidays. We are currently using relatively low cost items such as a Nintendo Wii remote, a Bluetooth Dongle, an IR LED pen and a piece of software called “Smoothboard” to give an impressive yet collaborative user experience for under £100 as shown in the Video post titled “Interactive Table“ at the bottom of this page. You will all be welcome to have a go of this current Interactive table for yourselves in september.
Once we have proved the theory our end goal would be to create a group focused Interactive Multi-touch device for under £1000 compared to Microsoft’s £8500 retail version called the “Microsoft Surface”. During the holidays we contacted “Natural-UI” a market leader in Multi-touch Software Technologies to ask for advice, we were pleasantly surprised to hear back from the companies CEO Harry van der Veen, regarding an opportunity to use their “Snowflake Suite” software for our Educational Multi-touch Project. Below is a video of the advanced version we would like to develop next, If you are interested in this project or have any ideas of how you could use this technology then let us know.
Welcome all new year 7 Students; in preparation for your arrival we have been working hard over the holidays to get your mobile computers ready for you. Here are some interesting facts…
When delivered the laptops weighed over 1 tonne altogether, which is as much as a Baby Elephant or a Mini Cooper…
Firstly 850 cardboard boxes were opened, and 840 plastic bags removed…
More than 1680 Screws were undone, or 3360 if you count screwing them back in again…
The laptops hard disks were removed then imaged; over 4,480gb of data was copied in total…
Over 560 network & power leads were plugged in…
Each laptop was switched on 3 times during the setup process which totals 840 presses of the power buttons…
The Administrator Password was typed in over 1120 times.
In total 2800 applications have been installed across all of the laptops…
The School Wireless connection was setup and tested 280 over times…
Over 840 stickers were stuck…
Over 10 Bin bags filled with excess cardboard and unwanted packaging were recycled…
Finally It took 4 people over 120 man hours to setup all of the mobile computers, which would be 20 full school days if you had to do it on your own…
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